A Knight's Tale
by SamTheMan135
Summary: The events that I feel should have taken place after Kotor 2 (LSM Ending). Will involve many old faces and characters. Should be a long story, so stick around for plenty of steady reading. Be easy on me! I am relatively new to fan-fiction. Please forgive me of my mistakes and errors.
1. Chapter 1: Awakening

Chapter 1: Awakening

I felt myself drifting in and out of my body. My time was nearing an end and I didn't want to hold on to life, or the Force, any longer. When I had struck down Traya, my mentor, and the Lord of the Sith, I felt a pain similar to what I felt when I had last walked on Malachor. It was a death inside me. So much pain. Except for this time I didn't sever the Force, I held on.

Now as I was laying in the Med Bay with my companions lingering over me, I regretted it.

I thought I heard Atton's familiar voice screaming from the Cockpit, but it sounded like he was at the end of a very far tunnel, and not just a few steps down the hall. Mira was scrambling through the Ebon Hawk, looking for emergency Kolto and medical supplies. Brianna and Canderous were near me, applying pressure to my many cuts and lacerations. HK-47 and T3 were put into standby mode and were being held in the Cargo hold so they wouldn't get in the way. GO-TO and the Remote seemed to be missing. Strange. Bao-Dur hammered at the Hyperdrive and the Ion Engine, functioning as a machine trying to get the Ebon Hawk running at it's full capacity. Visas was doing her best to keep my mind steady, using the Force, but I was trying so hard to leave my body and pain behind.

"He wants to leave us," Visas said quietly, "He is hurting so bad." She said with pain in her voice.

"Are you seeing his body? Of course he is in a pain. A Mandalorian couldn't live through this." Canderous spat in frustration, showing he did care for me, Matthew Surik.

"He is no Mandalorian, Canderous." Brianna said tenderly. "He is so much more." Her voice trailed off as Mira burst back into the room with Atton in tow.

"I barely outran that Sith cursed explosion!" He said, a bit panicked. "That Schutta's hatred was nearly the death of this entire section! We are on auto-pilot and bound for Citadel Station."

"Then help us with this!" Mira shouted, still rushing around wildly.

They began working, field stitching wounds and using Force heal. I remembered vaguely the lesson I had taught them on Force healing and preaching its importance. I spat out blood as I finally felt myself coming to, despite my best efforts to be One With the Force.

"His mind is steadying. Now if we can stabilize his vitals and slow his breathing, he can rest." Visas said quietly.

I felt her loose the hold on my mind. I heard a lightsaber power up. I knew what was coming and braced as someone cauterized a long cut along my ribs. I let out a groan and slipped out of consciousness.

...

I groggily awoke to Brianna's hand resting softly on my chest. I opened my eyes for the first time since we fled Malachor and met her cyan eyes, the same color as my lightsaber.

"Exile. Matthew. Are you here to stay this time?" She asked. "I know it must have been hard to stay." I stared at her silently, and realized that the wall she had built in her mind to keep me from knowing how she truly felt about me was gone. She loved me.

"I felt the death I had felt during the last battle of Malachor again." I murmured, not fully awake.

"I can hear the echo and I can feel it. But I need you to fight it once more."

I felt so many of the all too familiar sensations I had endure without the Force during my exile. But now, with the Force and Brianna strengthening me, the load felt much lighter.

"I'll stay." As the words left my mouth, the desire to die left me. I felt much better. Awake.

...

She stayed with me through the night. She slept in the chair at the foot of the bed. HK walked by the door in patrol mode, for some reason, and he noticed I was not asleep.

"Statement: Master, I do not believe that her presence will speed up your recovery in any way. However, based on your hormones, it does seem to pleasure you to some extent."

"Thank you for your concern HK, but it is not needed." I said with a slight grin.

"Unnecessary Statement: Master, the only concern I have is that this ship is not running at one hundred percent capacity. The Last of the Handmaiden's time could be better spent training to slaughter our enemies." He said while returning to his self-appointed patrol and walking towards the cockpit.

Brianna stirred and glanced to see I was awake. "Why aren't you sleeping? You need you're strength for Telos."

"I woke up and found that you had stayed with me. Then HK talked to me on his way by."

"What about?" She asked, interested.

"Ah, just about how I was feeling."

"Statement: Master, that is not correct." HK spoke up, passing through the garage for another time.

Brianna and I laughed quietly. "It is okay, I understand." When the moment passed she looked up at me, serious. "How did you survive?"

I thought quietly to myself for a moment. Gathering my thoughts, as it was a question I had asked myself since waking up.

"I honestly don't know. The assassins in the academy were so strong. Everyone I fought was like killing an angry Rancor. They had so much hatred, anger, and fear radiating from them, it infected my mind and made it hard to think. Once I closed in on Traya, Sion stepped from the shadows, more delusional than usual. He should have killed me. His skill was like Malak's the last time I sparred him near the end of the Mandalorian wars. If his rage wouldn't have blinded him, he would have killed me much sooner. Traya once said that power had blinded him long ago. I think that saved me. When I finally started getting the upper hand and was continuously striking him down, my confidence outgrew my caution, and I payed for it." I motioned to the long, brutal cut down my ribs. "If I wouldn't have leapt into the air when I did, he would have ran his blade through my heart." I said solemnly as I realized how near death I had come.

Brianna weighed my words in her mind for a short time. "What of Traya?"

"She was, different." I said trying to find the words to explain the confusing situation. "It was not near the fight I had with Darth Nihilus, or Sion for that matter. It seemed like just another test, or Sith-cursed lesson. Everything she put me through and told me, everything," I reiterated, "was a test. Either that or she was second-guessing herself."

"I do not think it would have taken that long for her to second guess herself, Exile. She hunted you across the galaxy, found you, helped reestablish your connection to the force, then led you to Malachor. No, I too think it was a test. But for what?"

"For me to realize my true power. The power to give and to take away life. An awakening in myself through the Force of some sort." I heard the soft drum of HK's power core as he passed through the hallway. "I will maybe never truly know. Maybe she was showing me how far I have come. Like saying, months ago, you couldn't feel the force. Now you battle Sith Lords with ease. But I truly do not know. She told me she saw me as an end to the the Force. I don't know what that meant but I think I will in time."

Brianna once again weighed my words, thinking. "I believe that is correct, Matthew. More so if that is what you felt during your battle. What was it like? Ending it, I mean."

"I felt as if I drug a vibroblade through the gaping wound Malachor left in me the last time I was there. It doesn't hurt so much now. The force has helped me." We sat in silence for a short time. Rummaging through our thoughts and feelings. I felt a pang of sleepiness I glanced at the time and noticed it was five standard hours before Mira began her morning meal for the crew. Brianna noticed.

"I will leave you to your rest." She said going to stand.

"No!" I said, maybe a bit too desperately. "I'm sorry. I just don't want to be left alone with my nightmares to accompany me."

"It is okay. There were many times on Telos I wished someone that cared would have comforted me in my sleep. Do not worry. I will stay." She sat back down on her chair and pulled the covers over her. She brushed the two short braids out of her face before trying to sleep.

I was asleep long before her.

...

I awoke shortly before Mira's cooking began. I noticed Brianna was no longer in the room with me. I reached out in the Force and heard her hands zipping through the air in the cargo hold. I wanted to walk.

I sat up on the side of the bed, leaning on my arms for support. I felt a strange sensation on my left hand. I braced myself for what was to come and looked down.

Right below the wrist joint, was a bandaged nub. My hand was gone. Just like my former master's. I should have suspected as much would have happened to leave me a constant reminder of her. I heard stumbling footsteps through the hall and looked to the doorway in time to see a grinning Atton walk in.

"Find your new trophy, huh?" He asked jokingly.

"I wouldn't call it a trophy, but I did notice. Why didn't you tell me?"

"You weren't in much of a talking mood when Bao-Dur drug you out of the Trayus core. You weren't in much of a living mood really." Atton said with a lazy shrug.

"I want to walk. Can you help me up?" I asked. He looked at me for a second, then honored my plea. He walked beside me and leaned down, putting himself under my arm. I slowly stood up as he shifted my weight to his shoulders. Once I stood up straight, he slowly let me stand on my own, once I got my bearings he let me go and walked beside me down the hallway and into the main hold.

Mira snapped her head away from the range and looked half-crazy with her short red hair standing in all directions and sleep still lingering in her red-stained eyes. "I didn't know you two were up! And Matthew! You should not be walking." She said a bit too motherly for my tastes.

"Well, I have to be able to walk on Telos, unless you can convince Atton to carry me through Citadel Station." I said nearly breathless.

"No thanks big guy. You can walk." He said smugly.

"Well let's finish our journey to the cockpit." I said slowly walking by Mira. She huffed and went back to preparing our meal.

Once we reached the cockpit I sat in the Navigator's chair and Atton sat in his usual spot in the Pilot's seat. I opened the interface and Atton began his usual diagnostics of the Ebon Hawk. I looked on the course map and saw we were one day and fourteen hours from Citadel Station. Strange, it took eight hyperspace days to get to Telos from Malachor.

"Atton, how long was I asleep?" I asked curious.

"This morning marked your sixth day of beauty rest since Malachor." He said plainly.

"Six days." I murmured. "And did Brianna…" he cut me off.

"Yes your Ice Queen stayed with you the whole time. We checked on you often, but she was attached to your side, only leaving to eat and use the refresher. She's got it for you bad, Matt." Atton was the only one aboard the ship who had taken to calling me Matt, a nickname Revan and Malak gave me when we were Padawans. I missed them. The real them. Surprisingly though, Atton using the name didn't bother me. Sometimes I wondered who my best friend was, Atton or Bao-Dur.

Mira hollered, "Lazy crew mates! Time to eat!" I noticed Atton was a little quick to respond to her beckon. I stayed silent and hobbled after him. When we reached the main hold Canderous walked in shortly after. I noticed he had taken off his armor and was now in a jumpsuit commonly worn under Mandalorian Assault Armor. Of course it was much more heavily armored than usual and modified to Canderous' like. His hair was a bit longer than he usually kept it, but it was still short on the sides and flat and standing straight up on top. The scar on his eyelid and top lip seemed more pronounced than I remembered.

"Well Jedi, don't admire my seasoned beauty for too long. Staring at old men isn't nice." The Mandalorian stated calmly. I nearly choked. Atton turned a very bright shade of red trying to restrain himself. Mira didn't even try and busted out laughing. As we chuckled and made small talk, we fixed our plates and sat down.

We sat down at our usual seats to the table Bao-Dur had made for seven. One seat would remain empty from now on. Canderous took up his spot at the head of the table. Atton sat to his right and Mira was adjacent from Atton. I sat right of Atton. Visas sat where Kriea had, adjacent to me. Bao-Dur usually sat right of me, and Brianna across from him. I heard Bao-Dur fire up a welder, and T3 beep a few times as Bao-Dur murmured a few commands to the loyal droid. I realized then he would not be coming to eat.

Shortly, Brianna strode into the room with the same grace and posture she strode into the main hold the first time I saw her aboard the ship while leaving Telos. I stared for maybe too long, memorizing features about her I hadn't noticed before. As my eyes left her face and traveled down to the bottom half of her body, Atton gave me a quick nudge, breaking my trance. I realized I had looked at her for some time. Only Atton had noticed thankfully.

I nodded a thanks to Atton for saving me some grief, and he tipped his fork to me in response. Brianna came and sat down in the chair beside me, and a bit close I noticed. Atton looked as if he was going to say something. But, with a slight twitch from Mira and a soft thud under the table, Atton's face went expressionless once again.

HK passed through the hold, still on his self-appointed patrol. "Statement: Ah wonderful, another lovely meat bag gathering."

We all shared slight giggles to the disturbing comment of the assassin droid. Once it had made me, and my companions uncomfortable. Now it was something that we had grown accustomed to and actually looked forward to. We ate as Canderous asked me about the Storm Beasts on Malachor. I told him how I fought them through the cliffs all the way to the entrance of the academy, and thankfully, he respected me enough to not ask of that.

Canderous and Atton, as usual, were the first to swallow down their food, and went and threw their plates into the kitchen refresher. Visas didn't clear her plate and quietly threw it in the refresher and left the room. They went about their ways and left Brianna, Mira, and I to talk.

"So," Mira began kicking back in her chair slightly and propping her feet on the table. "Are you two going to be a thing, or is this going to remain a childhood crush." Brianna blushed slightly.

I remained relatively unharmed, as I had prepared for this comment all morning. I decided to take a sarcastic route. "I'm really not in the best shape for a relationship at the moment." I lifted my shirt and motioned to a few healing cuts on me.

"Matthew." Brianna said hushed, turning a bit redder. I hadn't thought of embarrassing her. Mira giggled at her embarrassment.

"Ah, I'm only joking Mira. I just want to wait on the right time." I nodded and said, "I'm going to check on Bao-Dur and his seemingly new project." I nodded to the girls and upon walking out the door heard them whispering.

As I walked into the door I shielded my eyes from Bao-Dur's welding long enough for me to grab a heat shielding visor. I noticed he was welding on an orb. "What you got there?" I asked lightly.

"Good to see you are moving around, General. And I'm building a new remote with T3's help." T3 beeped happily in confirmation.

"What happened to your old one?"

"I gave him one last mission on Malachor. Him and GO-TO's droid will not be returning." He said quietly.

"I'm sorry." I said as I put a hand on his shoulder.

"It really is no problem. Droids are replaceable, you General, are not." He raised his mask to look at me. "Thank you for doing again what is necessary. Despite your flaws, you always do the right thing and come through, not only for your friends, but the galaxy. It's why I will always follow you, General."

I nodded to him with a smile. I was truly thankful for his friendship and loyalty.

"Can you spare some time for a lesson?" I asked, wanting to go over Force telepathy with my friends.

"No, General. Not today. I would rather work on this." He went back to his work, deterring me from prying anymore.

While walking back into the main hold I shouted playfully, "Gather round children! It's time for your next step in being padawans!" I was their elder by only a few years. I was just marked 27 standard years old, Atton was 25, as was Mira, Visas was 21, and Brianna was 20, the youngest on the ship, besides HK, who was commissioned by Revan shortly after the Mandalorian wars. T3 had seen many adventures and I wasn't sure of his age, but I had a feeling his adventures had worn on him more than his actual time spent in the universe.

They all hurriedly shuffled into the room in their robes. Usually someone of their knowledge in the Force would be in Padawan robes, but I decided to give them all Knight robes. It suited their ages much better. Besides, I liked how the Knight robes looked. I was in my casual gray Jedi robes.

We got in our usual meditation circle and centered ourselves. Strangely enough, I felt much stronger than I had earlier, when all my friends had joined me in meditation. We all began to play Pazaak as Atton had taught me, and in turn taught the rest of the Force sensitives. After we were readied. I spoke to them, "So, after seeing the effectiveness of our healing lesson, and how quickly you all caught on, I want to dive into something a bit more complex. Force Telepathy."

"What you mean like crawling around in other people's minds?" Mira asked, a bit standoffish.

"No. For now I mean communication in the mind among friends." I said smiling "Then later it will be crawling through people's minds." I added, only half joking

I started teaching them to listen, as Kriea once had taught me. I noticed Visas already had an infinity in this, as she had steadied my mind while fleeing Malachor, using a very advanced form of this technique.

Jokingly, I softly added, trying not to break their concentration. "Put a thought in your mind that you would like us all to know. Be careful not to add anything to revealing."

I reached into each of their minds while opening mine, revealing my pride in them, and felt all their very familiar Force presences going in and out of my base thoughts. Brianna, her Echani fighting steps. Mira, her favorite incapacitating blow. Atton, his pride of his piloting. Visas and her… no that couldn't be right. I searched her a bit deeper. No, it was definitely affections for me. I remembered that she understood how to do this and wondered if this is what she was also telling the others.

I slowly opened my eyes and looked at all of my friends concentrating. They caught on so quickly, and I felt them all connecting, as I had connected to them over the course of our almost seven month journey. One by one they opened their eyes and exchanged glances, enlightenment with one another showing in their eyes.

"Wow." Atton said. "I've always kept people out of my mind, but visiting somebody else's mind, who invited me in, that was amazing. Thank you for that." He nodded to me and I smiled back, happy that he was so accepting of my teachings to him.

Everybody exchanged glances and we once again meditated and centered ourselves.

I decided to speak up while they were meditating. "Remember how each of your friend's presences in your mind felt. That way, if in need, they will be able to access you and get past your mental blocks. Kriea was always able to talk to me, despite the situation or how I felt about her at the moment. One day you all will do the same if you continue to work on this."

One by one, they got up and went their ways once we had finished meditating on the lesson, until it was only Brianna and me left.

"Let's spar." She got up and walked straight to the cargo hold.

Instead of the usual lack of clothes we had, Mandalore had given us light Mandalorian jumpers to start sparring in after the battle at Telos, saying we were worthy of Mandalorian gear. They were undeniably comfortable and they were like slipping on another set of skin. They fit close the the skin, and didn't impair movement.

I limped over to a staff and decided I needed to work on my skill with one.

"Exile." Brianna said softly. I looked down and realized I was reaching for the staff with my missing left hand.

"Right. Long sword it is." I reached for the blade up on the wall.

"You need to get use to fighting without that hand. At least for a while. I will not go at you with all my might but do not expect an easy fight." She dropped into a basic Echani stance that I recognized easily. It was a style that she had helped me master. It was a purely defensive stance that was not very aggressive. What made it effective was being how simple it was, it was very easy to switch into much more aggressive stances.

We slowly began to circle each other and quickly began going through dueling motions, trying to set me in a spot of comfort. We had begun to skip these, as they were long and tedious. But, with the loss of my hand I was not at the point in fighting I had been. I was taking deep breaths barely halfway through. Soon the motions were over and I struck out at her. She easily parried the weak strike with her staff but did not counter like usual.

I reset my stance, then quickly kicked at her shin trying to knock her off balance. I swung my blade, much stronger this time at her side, but not even close to my usual strength, which she caught with her staff and spun my blade quickly. I followed the motion through, spinning around and once full circle, came down with a blow right above her collarbone that was caught once again with her staff. I looked at Brianna with a smile and she glanced at me grinning.

I fell back in horror. I had seen Sion's face on hers.

I stood up quickly. "I'm sorry. I think that is good for the day. I am really weak today." I was struggling for breath.

She nodded sadly. "It's okay. I understand. What did you see? You look like you have seen a ghost."

"Sion. That was the same strike I used to execute him."

"Execute him? Was that what you meant to say?"

"Yes. He had thrown his saber away and talked to me. At the end of our talk, he would not entirely free himself of the Darkside, but let go enough for me to kill him. I sensed it and struck him down through his collarbone with my lightsaber. I am no Jedi." I said grimly going to turn.

"You are right, Exile." I stopped to listen. "You are greater than any of the Jedi. No other Jedi could have survived, no Jedi could have resisted the call of Darkness. You truly are something greater."

She stepped towards me and leaned towards me. "That is why I love you."

I looked into her eyes for a moment. Her mind was still open to me as it had been when I had woken up last night. She loved me. And I loved her. I embraced her for just a moment. Enough to reassure her, "Thank you." I whispered as I let her go.

I held her gaze before slowly walking out of the cargo hold. I needed to clear things with Visas. I took quick steps to the crew room where she stayed.

As I walked into her room, she turned her head up. "Have you come to me once again with questions, Matthew?"

"Yes, Visas. We need to clear things between us." I said, trying to steady my voice and nerves.

"Very well. What is it that bothers you?"

"Do you love me, Visas?" I tried to stay hushed. I didn't want the others to hear. Especially Brianna.

"I do. Maybe more so than the Echani. I would give my life to you. Anything you asked of me, I would do." She said a bit louder then I hoped for.

"Visas, I care for you as I do all of my friends, but I do not love you in that way. I do not wish for you to care for me. I don't want to hurt you." I said stumbling over my words, my confidence faltering. I had never had to reject a woman's affections before.

"That, is what hurts me the most, Exile. I would give you everything, and you will not." Her voice had not wavered. She was still speaking in her normal tone.

"Visas, I'm sorry." I had no idea how she felt. I did not want to.

"It is okay. You will continue to love the Echani. I will still serve and love you." She bowed her head once more, and shut me out of her mind, not letting me in to try and understand her pain.

I looked at her briefly and whipped out of the room, angry that she just shut me off.

"General." Bao-Dur called as I passed. I peeked my head into the garage to look at him. "You cannot expect one to get over you easily. I am obviously no woman and do not feel for you as the Echani or Visas," I grinned at his sly comment, "but, you do leave impressions on people."

He shrugged, "Hopefully her feelings will pass."

I nodded, trying to understand that I needed to be more compassionate, and he went back to his work, obviously not feeling the need for any more conversation.

I walked into the cockpit to speak with Atton. I sat in the Navigators chair and saw it was 23 hours to Telos. Time had passed quickly today. Meditating and sparring seemed to really speed hyperspace along.

"Well, how has fending off the women come along today?" Atton asked with a grin.

"Fending off the women?"

"Yea you got two of them trying to get you to settle down. Visas let everyone know about her agenda today while in our lesson." I turned pale. Great, everyone including Brianna knew how Visas felt. No wonder she was quick to go and spar.

"Don't act to surprised," Atton said, cutting off my thoughts, "with the way she was thinking, we all would have known soon enough. She would have acted or spoken on it soon enough. Let's just hope that there isn't a maalraas fight that tears this ship apart."

"Well, Sith's blood. I was hoping that was only what she was telling me. That complicates things." I spat quietly.

"It sure does, Matt. You have got to learn that everything to do with women is complicated. Look at Kriea's grand scheme. Only a woman could think up that." Atton spoke as if he knew all about the subject of complicated women.

"I'll take your word for it." I quietly double-checked the course, just to be sure and got up to leave. Turning I said, "Oh yeah, and watch out for Mira to complicate your life." He said nothing but I thought I saw red on the tip of his ears.

Later in the day, Mira once again called everyone to the table with dinner done. We all walked in about the same time and sat at the same spots we had this morning, besides Bao-Dur joining us and sitting near Visas. Brianna sat next to me once again. I noticed she was leaning in my direction, like she was trying to close the distance between us. She kept shooting defensive glances at Visas, who either didn't know or didn't care. The meal passed with no interesting conversation and was only filled with small talk and murmurs about the good food.

By the end of dinner I was exhausted. I walked back to where Kriea had usually stayed. I had decided to make it my personal room and no one cared. They didn't want to stay in that part of this ship when my old mentor was alive, and now, they didn't even look this direction. The other three bunk beds in the room made me feel a bit lonely, but I was glad for my privacy.

Thankfully, all the other crew mates had their own places of rest picked out and were not worried about moving. I got settled and started trying to go to sleep. I tried to no avail. I kept turning over in my mind the horrors that took place both times I had been on Malachor. Before I knew it, I was in a cold sweat. I sat up in my bed, tired of trying to sleep.

I heard the sounds of light feet coming down the corridor. Brianna. She was the only one on the ship not dragging their feet at this hour. She knocked on my sealed hatch.

"Come in." I said soft enough for her to hear through the door while reaching for a shirt. She opened it and I was actually surprised at her appearance. Puffy eyes and swollen cheeks marked her usually flawless face. She was visibly shaken.

"What's the matter?" I asked concern.

She walked across the room and over to my bed, the farthest one from the door, and sat beside me. "I'm… tired." She said weakness in her voice.

"Tired of what, Brianna?"

"Masking my emotions and building walls up. Hiding behind my training and acting like I don't care when I do."

"What do you mean?" I was getting tired of asking questions, but remembered Atton's words on women and their complications. I fought a grin back, knowing the seriousness of the moment.

"Visas showed me how she felt about you. I do not like it. I do not like her. I didn't the first time she stepped on the ship, and my feelings have not changed. I don't feel she can be trusted. I think that is even truer in the fact that she can't be trusted with you." Her voice was still a bit shaky.

I took in her words, knowing there was more to be said.

"Besides that, I can't stop thinking of some of the things my sister called me on Telos. They denied that we were even related. They were going to kill me in cold blood, Matthew!" Her voice broke and she began to quietly sob. I put my arm around her and she nuzzled her head into my chest. I just let her cry. I understood that even the strongest people felt so weak sometimes, maybe better than anyone else. I had seen Revan break down before so Brianna revealing weakness was not surprising.

When she finally began to calm, she quickly stood and tried to go, "I'm sorry, I should return to the cargo hold." I quickly grabbed her hand.

"You can stay here. With me." I said quietly, looking into her eyes.

She turned to look at me. Her eyes were red from tears. She was quiet for a second, thinking. "Okay. Let me grab my things."

She left but returned quickly with her covers. One of them was the blanket I had given to her the first night after she revealed herself to us on the ship. I didn't want her to be cold as well as lonely.

She began putting her stuff down on the bed in front of mine. I watched her for a while, building my courage.

"Brianna," I said softly. She looked at me. "Will you sleep with me?" I scooted back to give her room to lay next to me on the bed. She nodded and came and climbed into the bed next to me. She pulled the cover over her and turned her back to me. I wanted to hold her, but settled on her presence near me being enough. I closed my eyes and drifted into my first real rest since leaving Malachor.


	2. Chapter 2: Arrival

Chapter 2: Arrival

I woke up and felt the warmth of Brianna's body next to me. I stayed in the position I had fallen asleep in, which was strange as I usually tossed and turned through the night. I looked at the clock above me, and saw I had once again woke up a few minutes before Mira began cooking breakfast. Brianna was usually up and training.

I guess she had noticed me stirring and rolled over. She had obviously woken up before me, though not long before.

"Morning." Brianna said, flashing a smile.

"Good morning." I said, smiling and feeling a bit to giddy given all the things that had taken place the past few weeks. She made me happy.

"I see you slept very well, Matt." She said glancing at my apparently wild hair. It struck me that she had called me Matt. I liked it.

"Well, excuse me then. I'll go visit the refresher and straighten up for you." I said grinning. She sat up to allow me to move past her. I realized that I was only in the pants of my gray robes, and tensed up. I had never been one to show off, I had been a Jedi and always practiced extreme modesty, even during the Mandalorian Wars and throughout most of my exile. I knew Brianna had very little modesty about her, but even she had slept in her Knight robes, minus her over-robe.

I walked into the refresher room and looked at myself in the mirror I seemed like I had aged half a decade over the past few months. I was once again broad and muscular. I had lost a lot of weight during my exile, as I was wandering aimlessly and not fighting a war or sparring padawans and other knights. I was six foot tall, just like Revan, a little taller than most republic soldiers.

My hair had grown out a bit, but still wasn't touching my ears, as I had usually kept it neat and trimmed with an undercut hairstyle. I pushed it back and out of my face, using some water to tame some of the messiness. I ran a comb through the hair on the back of my head to fix my bed hair. Revan had always told me I cared too much about my hair.

"It will only get wind tossed and you will have to fix it again." He had told me several times trying to convince me my efforts to look nice were futile.

I trimmed my beard that covered up my squarish face and jawline then brushed my teeth. I stared at myself for just a moment in the mirror. I had been told several times in my adulthood that I was a good-looking man. Several times while in cities I could see women and even sometimes men staring at me. I had a hard time noticing what look good about me, but I never complained about the extra attention. I quit looking at myself and headed back to my room to dress for breakfast. The Handmaiden might not have cared about my lack of clothing, but one of the crew would have.

I returned to the cargo hold and found Brianna still sitting on the bed, eyes shut, and eyebrows crinkled.

"You do spend a lot of time on your hair." She looked up and grinned. "I'm glad I paid attention to that listening trick you taught us."

I sighed. I should have known that would have happened sooner or later. Kriea often caught many of my stray thoughts, and I felt much closer to many of my friends then I had to her. She stood up and approached me.

"And you are right, I don't mind your lack of clothes." She wrapped her arms around me and laid her head on my chest. I was caught very off guard, but gently hugged her back with my good arm. She ran a hand down the middle of my back, then let me go and looked up at me.

"How close were you and Revan?" She asked, curious.

I paused a moment, trying to decide how much to tell her. "We had once referred to each other as brothers. We sparred and trained together, were similar in force skill for most of our Padawan years, we were always the same height and build. We were like clones of each other, besides our faces and personality. He was much more outgoing and adventurous. He was never in the same place, always looking for an adventure or searching the ways of the Force. That is probably the reason his surpassed me so quickly in his power. He always wanted to learn more. Him, Malak, and I," I paused, a bit of nostalgia and sadness washing over me, "we were close." I settled with that as an appropriate answer to her question.

"What was Malak like, before the war?"

"He was an intense man, as he had been before, during, and after the Mandalorian Wars. But in a good way, always striving to be his very best. That's how he got so good with a lightsaber. Always talking and training with highly esteemed Weapon Masters and Jedi Guardians. He was actually quite the charmer. Very charismatic, he was. He had many friends and the girls in the academy loved to spend free time with him. He never showed signs of the Dark Side though. I would have never guessed him and Revan to be Lords of the Sith. He was once someone I had looked up to. Right before we were granted knighthood, he began to really pull away with his blade skill, often times, Revan and me both sparring him simultaneously or back to back. He showed me many forms he had mastered, which I had fallen out of touch with during my exile. Of course, I remastered some of them. But, he was a good man. An even better Jedi." I said, realizing how much I missed him and Revan both. Sadly, I would never be reunited with Malak. I felt that he had not become One With the Force at his death.

Brianna thought a moment before speaking, "It's strange to think some of the cruelest and most evil of the Sith were at one time great Jedi. Helping people, training with Padawans, meditating on controlling themselves, only to abandon it all for power."

"I agree it is strange. But there are some things that the Sith know that Jedi cannot defend themselves against. Revan, Malak, and even Bastilla fell to it. If not for me losing my connection to the force, I would have also fallen." I shivered at the thought. "That is why Revan ventured out to the outer regions. After defeating Malak, he realized how powerful the call of the Dark Side had been to some, and realized that whatever was causing it had to be stopped. He believed himself to be the only one capable of stopping it."

"Do you believe that to?" Brianna asked.

"Almost. Revan is so powerful. I saw him as unstoppable. Unbending. But there is something out there, Brianna. It is more powerful than Malak, Kriea, Sion, or even Darth Nihilus. Sadly, it is also more powerful then Revan." I lowered my eyes, concerned for my old friend. "He will need help. Once we get to Telos, we need to contact who we can of his old crew and go find him."

"Will that be enough, Matthew?"

"For the sake of the galaxy, and the Force, I hope."

We walked into the main hold and saw Mira loading hot food into the dispensers. She hollered for the rest of the crew. I noticed Atton was already in the hold, leaning against the wall and talking smoothly to Mira. I couldn't hear him, but Mira seemed pleased, a happy smile lighting up her face. HK passed me, still patrolling. Atton grabbed a plate and sat down, I was right after him and sat next to him.

He had a smug look on his face. He looked at me and grinned. "We need to talk after breakfast." He said quietly. Mira and Brianna came to the table talking under their breath in a schoolgirl manner. We were soon joined by everyone else sitting in their previous spots. Brianna kept looking up at me. I looked at her and made eye contact and she blushed a bit.

I couldn't help but notice Mira and Atton sharing glances and looks. Visas sat still, and emotionless, keeping her mind and thoughts closed to me, even though I was prying. Mandalore suddenly spoke up. "Sith's blood. There is not near enough rooms on this ships for all you frisky Cath Hounds."

I spit out the drink I had just taken all in the floor, instantly laughing. Bao-Dur chuckled as the others, except Visas, laughed hysterically at me for spitting out my drink. I wiped my lips and went to fetch something to clean up the mess. I came back to red faces and teary eyes. It made me feel good to have people close to me I could rely and count on to be there. I quickly cleaned up the mess and finished breakfast around the same time as everyone else.

Atton went and threw his plate in the refresher and walked towards the Cockpit, shooting me a glance. I got up and followed him so we could have our conversation.

"So," he asked shutting the magnetic door and grinning, "did ya sleep well, Matt?"

"Did you, Atton?" I asked picking up on the building relationship between Mira and my good friend. "If you slept at all that is."

"Trust me, Matt, that woman is more than enough to make me tired for the night." He said, obviously pleased with himself.

I dramatically ran my hand down my face, rolling my eyes. "But yes Atton, I did sleep well. Only, sleep." I said, trying to convince him that nothing had happened between me and the Handmaiden.

He stared at me, trying to read me, as he had countless times before. He nodded, "Okay, maybe not last night, but what about tonight?"

He smiled broadly, as I sighed, defeated as I knew it was only a matter of time before things progressed between Brianna and I. I felt the heat on my face.

"Don't take it too hard. I know it isn't your first go around, but it is hers. You have nothing to worry about." Atton said reassuringly, with a sarcastic undertone.

"Okay, Atton, point taken. You embarrassed me and we both understand how we feel about our, 'friends'. How much farther to Telos?"

"About six hours. We will be there around three in the afternoon." Atton answered settling into the Pilot's seat to run his diagnostics.

"That's an awkward arrival time." I stated while walking out.

"Yes we didn't quite have the time to set a course that would help us reach the Station in the morning while fleeing a Sith army and a planet-sized explosion."

I chuckled as I exited the cockpit heading back into the main hold to pass time.

A few hours passed in relative silence when suddenly I heard HK's Heavy Repeater charge up. My ears perked up to the all familiar sound as the droid shouted in a very commanding voice, "Threat: Stand down meatbag! One move and you will be disintegrated very suddenly."

I rushed back to the cargo hold were HK was standing over a short, pale humanoid, clutching an unignited lightsaber. As I got closer I realized it was obviously an adult, but very short, and utterly terrified. I felt the Dark Side rippling strongly within it, fear, anger, and hate consuming its mind, but yet, I felt no power from it. I guessed it was male, but it held few defining features.

"HK, well done on sniffing this one out. But, it isn't a threat. You may stand by." I said nodding to HK.

He did not argue, and let the charge on his blaster die down. He took only one step back but remained in a combat stance with his blaster still pointed at the small man's head.

I crouched down and looked into his yellow eyes. I could fell his hate rolling off of him as I had approached him.

"Do you understand Galactic Basic?" No answer. I tried the same phrase in nearly a dozen core languages, but did not get any response at all. No shifts in body language, no eyes cutting back. Nothing. He held my eye contact and kept the same body posture he had when I walked in.

"Statement: Master, I say you let me disintegrate him then we can discard his ashes into hyperspace. It would be no problem at all." His eyes lighting up brightly while speaking.

I stood up tall. "HK that will not be necessary. He is not to be killed. Take him to the storage room and keep an eye on him. The authorities at Citadel Station can handle him once we reach our destination."

I went to walk out and when I had taken a few steps, I heard the humanoid began shuffling. I heard a hard metallic clang and a loud thump. I turned to see the small male crumpled on the ground.

"HK, was that necessary?" I asked annoyed with the seven and a half foot tall, half-ton assassin droid bullying a five foot humanoid.

"Explanatory Statement: Master, the small humanoid was trying to sneak up behind you. He had obviously underestimated my reflexes so I quickly disabled the threat with a quick, and very non-lethal blow. I assure you, he will live, Master." The droid said, irritated.

"Fine." I snapped. "Thank you for protecting me. Just carry him to the storage hold and make sure he doesn't get into anything. I walked into the hallway to be faced by the whole crew.

"Well?" Mira asked expectantly.

"I'm not entirely sure, but I think it is one of the Sith's slaves from Malachor. He must have ran away and hid from his masters. He knows how to mask his presence. I don't know how he learned, but I think that is how none of us felt his presence. He is no threat though." I said reassuringly.

They all shrugged and walked back to their activities. It was hard for things such as a simple stowaway to surprise them after all they had seen.

I walked back to the workbench I had moved into my room and began tinkering with my lightsaber. I looked at my crystal that had bonded to me, and noticed that the once dark blue aroma it had glowed with was now changing into a more light grey. Odd. I didn't know enough about bonded crystals to know the meaning.

I understood what lied in the near future, so I changed out my upgrades to improve defense and blaster fire into lightsaber and sparring defense. I knew many dark Jedi and Sith waited for me, and I would be prepared for them.

I was snapped out of my trance with a light touch on my shoulder. I looked back and saw Brianna.

"You've been in here for three hours. We will arrive at Telos shortly." She said softly.

I looked at the clock and confirmed what she said. I quickly closed up my lightsaber, done with what I had planned to do.

"What do you think will happen next, Matt?" She asked, a bit worried.

A smiled slightly, turning to look at her. "A reunion of course."


	3. Chapter 3: Reunion

Chapter 3: Reunion

We arrived at Citadel Station and docked at our usual port that we had used the duration of our journey. HK escorted the small Sith humanoid off the ship, and went to turn him into Lieutenant Green while the rest of us gathered a few personal belongings from the ship. We planned on staying on the station for a few days of rest. The Ebon Hawk was comfortable and roomy, but it wasn't like anything we could have while planet side.

As I was walking down the loading ramp with my bag slung over my shoulder, Mira firmly grabbed my arm. "Hang on one second, there's something I have to show you."

She led me into the storage room and opened up a small compartment on the back wall. About a quarter million credits piled out of the compartment. I was awe struck as to how so many credits were there.

"What's this about, Mira?" I asked, curious.

She explained, "Well, me and the crew decided to scrape together all the credits we made during this trip and pull from what little funds we had before we met you and stuck it all together. This is what we came up with. We then contacted Carth Onasi, and had him to reach out to a cybernetic specialists. We are going to have your hand replaced, Matthew. He will meet with you tomorrow to get all the information he needs, then the next day you will go into surgery. We still have plenty of credits leftover for whatever we need."

I was touched but not to the point of tears. I leaned down to hug her and held her for just a moment. I thanked her for her thoughtfulness.

"Is Carth still with Lieutenant Green?" I asked, needing to speak to the former companion of Revan.

"Yes. They will be in the security office. Right where we left em'." She grinned as I once again turned to exit the Ebon Hawk.

Walking down the ramp, I noticed just how sore I still was. I had a bit of a limp but knew it wouldn't remain for very long. I was healing remarkably fast over most of my body. I was worried more about the cut running down the left side of my ribs. If it had not had been cauterized it would for sure still be an open wound. Thankfully, it was also healing well. I looked around and noticed the many TSF officers and republic soldiers still on the station.

Brianna caught up to me as I was walking through the first sealed door and looped her arm through mine. I enjoyed it but wondered why she was displaying our relationship in front of everyone on the station.

"Why the sudden audacity?" I asked quietly.

"I told you I was tired of hiding my feelings. I want everyone to know how I feel." She quietly said back.

We walked back to our apartments that Lieutenant Green had given to the entire crew. He had marked all of Apartment Complex C as ours while we stayed on the station. Nobody argued with him thankfully. At least that's what he had told me over the com-link. He also said we were now considered "Republic heroes", a title I was all to willing to turn down. Me and Brianna placed our belongings on the first door on the left. The many times we had been there, it was always sealed until now. It seemed to be a suite of sorts, and it was a bit fancy for my tastes. But I didn't argue. It was nice to have fancy things for once.

Brianna noticed my smirk as I sat my stuff on the single bed in the room and began unpacking.

"What's funny Matt?" She asked her head slightly tilted in curiosity.

"I'm just not used to this type of luxury. I've been a Jedi or a soldier my whole life. We tend to be simple." I said grinning.

She returned the smile and said with a shrug, "It is quite nice in here."

Shortly after I had set up the apartment to my liking, I walked to meet Carth. As I was leaving Mira walked into our room with Atton in tow to spend some time with Brianna. I looked across the lobby of the complex into Canderous' and Bao-Dur's room to check on them. Canderous was cleaning a large arsenal of Mandalorian weapons and watching the Holonet, as Bao-Dur was still working on the new remote with a unusually noisy T3. Visas wasn't in sight so I reached out into the force and felt her behind the only closed door in the complex. Her mind was steady, as was her force aura. That made me feel a bit better.

I left the complex and trudged to meet Carth.

I arrived to the Security room in a mere ten minutes. I walked past the protocol droid, who opened the door to Lieutenant Green and Carth talking over his now modified, semi-circle desk. They had put a chair in for him and Carth was leaning over the side of the desk talking to him as Lieutenant Green punched away at his keys and watched the security monitors. I heard HK's power core quietly drumming in the holding cell room.

Carth noticed me and stood at attention. "It is a honor to see you again, General Surik."

I let out an uncomfortable cough. "'General' Surik?"

"Yes, sir", he responded, still at attention. "You were never discharged from the Republic army and the last rank you held was General, explicitly given to you by the previous Commander of the Republic armed forces, Master Revan. Although you have been considered MIA for sometime, you are still a General. I had a talk with several CO's in the army and we are all in agreement. You still hold the rank of general."

"Well then," I said surprised. "At ease, I suppose, Admiral Carth. And please, skip all unnecessary formalities. Speak to me as a friend not another officer, Carth."

"No problem." He said slumping to a much more natural posture. "So, Matthew, I believe there is someone here that you should meet."

I reached out quickly and felt a very familiar force sensitive approaching me from the hallway. I turned around just as the door opened and a very familiar brown haired, and soft-featured woman stepped through the door.

"Bastila." I said softly, very excited to see how much my former peer had grown, not only in looks but also in the Force.

I took a step to her and gave her a warm friendly embrace, I caught her by surprise, and she stood for just a second before returning the hug.

As we pulled away she spoke up, "I see you are as affectionate as ever, Matthew. It is nice to see your trials have not made you cold." She said, a warmness in her voice. "Anyways, I believe we have much to talk about old friend."

I nodded as the four of us gathered around to catch up on the entirety of my long journey, from Peragus, all the way to finding the Sith Humanoid.

"It all started with me waking up in a kolto tank on Peragus..."

...

"...and then after Mira showed me the stockpile of credits, and I met you guys shortly after."

Bastila leaned back a bit, running a hand through her hair, and Carth looked as if he was still processing the information. Green looked astounded.

"You really did all that. If that story could be confirmed, you, well you would be a legend." Green said, almost with child-like excitement. "I knew you Jedi type where resourceful, but I don't think that even the Jedi can teach you how to carry out a mission like that."

I kept my modesty in check at the compliment. "Well I definitely did not do it alone. I had plenty of help."

"It sounds like the journey that Revan took us on almost five years ago." Bastila said. "I was barely nineteen years old then, and thought people capable of doing such things only existed in myths and old textbooks. I never thought I would be apart of one such journey. And now here you are. You have done a feat I would once thought only Revan capable of." Carth still remained silent.

I suddenly felt a powerful and unfamiliar force sensitive approaching and put up a powerful mental block. Bastila's eyes snapped to me as she felt my sudden shift in my mind. Carth shifted uncomfortably in his seat. The door opened and a young child walked in the door, four years old at most. He had shoulder length brown hair and an upright posture, and his face was soft and innocence despite his high and pronounced cheek bones uncharacteristic of children his age, who usually had fat cheeks. He looked like Bastila. He also looked like Revan. I quickly put the pieces together.

"Okay, wow." I said actually caught off guard. "When did this happen?"

"This is what Revan left me with before he went on his journey." She said as the boy walked up and grabbed her leg and she playfully ruffled his hair.

"Mom. I'm very tired and would like to go to sleep. Mr. Green's protocol droid is boring me now." He said in broken galactic basic. He was clearly just learning to speak in sentences properly. I glanced and noticed it was nearly eleven at night for galactic time. I was exhausted and didn't realized we had talked so long. It wouldn't have taken so long to recall the story, but I had to explain much of what happened. It was still confusing to me, and I lived through it.

"Well, Mom, I'm quite tired as well." I said sarcastically while standing up. The young lad shot Bastila a worried glance, but she gave him a reassuring nod no, confirming she was not in fact my mother. "But the three us for sure have some things to talk about in the morning. I'll see you then. Goodnight." I nodded to the men, and patted the young child on the head, and gave Bastila a quick, friendly kiss on the cheek while walking out the door and back to my suite.

I walked into my dimly lit suite and saw Brianna cuddled up beneath the thick covers with only her head poking out.

"You're a poor pretender. A good thing you decided to be a warrior rather than a holonet actress." I said.

"No really. I am asleep." She never opened her eyes but flashed her big smile.

"Oh. Well I wasn't convinced." I went into the refresher and quickly got ready for bed. I put on some comfortable sleeping shorts and went to climb in the bed.

As I was walking into the room Brianna sat up. "Wait before you lay down. I want to check something." I walked over to her side of the bed. She turned the lights brightness up a bit and inspected the long cut along my ribs. She ran her finger down the tinder cut. Her eyes trailed to a few bruises and smaller cuts while her hands rested on my abs.

"It's healing well. I wanted to be sure you were taking care of it." Her eyes stayed down on my cut.

"You know I always take care of myself. You just wanted an excuse to check me out." I said chuckling. She looked up and dropped her hands to her lap and rolled her eyes.

I walked back over to my side of the bed and covered up. I turned to face Brianna and wrapped my good arm around her. We both fell asleep very quickly with no conversation, completely wore out from the past few days.

...

I woke up the next morning around breakfast time. I patted the empty bed beside me and looked up to see Brianna putting on the over robe of her knight robes. She turned around and saw I was awake.

"Let's go get the crew and grab some breakfast at the cantina."

I nodded and rolled out of bed as she went to make sure everyone else was awake. I quickly put on my grey robes and went to clean up. When I walked out Atton and Mira walked out of the room adjacent to me and where talking playfully under their breath. I grinned and nodded at them, and they nodded back. Canderous was once again cleaning his already gleaming Heavy Repeating Blaster, but was ready to go eat. Brianna was looking over Bao-Dur's shoulder as him and T3 worked tediously on his remote. It looked near completion.

"Everyone ready?" I asked just loud enough for them to hear. I got mostly grunts and a few nods from them, but they were all ready. Visas' door unsealed and she walked out into the hallway and ahead of the group. We all walked toward the shuttle and cut up and joked around lightly. It reminded me of my padawan years when everyone would walk in groups to the mess hall. I looked around and noticed people looking at my friends and I with gleaming eyes. Maybe we really were heroes to them. To me we were just a ragtag group of friends who wanted to do what was right.

We continued our banter on the shuttle with Visas the only one detached from the conversation. We jokingly speculated on things to come in the Republic until Canderous shouted, "The Mandalorians will rise again!" Then when we all got uncomfortably quiet he said, "I'm joking!", and busted into a hearty laugh that we soon all joined in.

When we walked into the cantina there was hardly anyone there, being it was before noon and to early to drink juma, and many were at there respected jobs. There were a few off duty TSF officers and Republic soldiers but that was about it. Thankfully they weren't getting drunk and weren't very rowdy. They were all just sharing a few drinks. We sat at one of the large middle tables, and Brianna sat close enough to me that our legs were touching.

I leaned over and joked. "You'll have to scoot over when the food comes, I need plenty of elbow space."

She made a big scene of scooting closer and made me laugh quietly at the thought of how we played around like children. A young and beautiful Twi'lek with a blue skin complexion walked up and began to take our order, although she spoke in her native tongue, she understood Galactic Basic very well and there were no complications with our order. Within the hour we all had hot food and were pretty excited to eat something besides Mira's cooking. Although she was a good cook, it was getting old.

We all ate our food with no complaints. Soon after we finished the Twi'lek returned to fetch our dishes. She put her hand flirtatiously on my shoulder and asked if we enjoyed our meal. I slipped her a generous 250 credits and asked her to split it with the cook while saying how much we enjoyed it. I patted her hand as she turned to take the tip and dishes back to the kitchen.

I noticed Brianna shooting daggers into the young Twi'lek's back. I gently nudged her, which prompted her to turn her stink eye to me. "I do not appreciate the way she touched you, Matt. I really don't like that you encouraged her."

"Brianna, I did not encourage her. I was friendly and tipped her for doing her job well. That's the right thing to do." I said to her softly.

"But she doesn't think so." She said getting frustrated.

"Listen Brianna, I promise. She knows nothing will come of me tipping her. We were just being friendly, and because I was nice to her, she took very good care of us. It's nothing at all." I said trying to convince her.

"Hmph." Was the only response I got. She knew I was right. At least this time.

"Well I'm going back to the complex. I'll see you youngsters later." Canderous said as he walked out of the cantina.

Visas left without a sound, properly agitating me for another time. Bao-Dur spoke up saying, "I'm going to finish my remote. It should be done soon and I have bigger projects to start." It sounded as if he was hinting to something but I had no idea what he meant.

Atton looked at me, "Me and Mira are going to see what kind of trouble we can cause without breaking the law. You know, being the heroes we are and all." He got up and led Mira out by the hand.

"Come with me." I told Brianna. "I have to go talk to Carth and Bastila. I want you to come with me and meet them."

She nodded and we walked out side by side to the security station. Carth and Bastila were talking to the right of the Lieutenant's desk and both looked up when we walked into the office. I could still hear HK's core drumming in the adjacent room. I assumed he had taken it on himself to guard the small Sith all hours of the day.

"How is our prisoner?" I asked lightly.

"He remains completely unresponsive. It's annoying. He is eating and drinking but barely." Green responded

"I tried to speak to him but he wouldn't even look at me." Bastila said. "I inspected his lightsaber, and it is actually a Jedi weapon. A very well made one. Similar to what a council member or a Jedi Master would wield. It was also odd that the color crystal was green, not red. However, I have no idea where it came from or how old it is."

This strange Sith humanoid was becoming more of an issue than I liked. "Any idea what species or home world he originates from." I asked, curious now

"Absolutely no records in the Republic database indicate what he could be." Carth spoke up.

"The Council also has no idea what he is exactly, although they have ideas." Bastila said.

"Wait, the Council?" Brianna said quite loudly. "I thought there was no council."

"After you left for Malachor, a few of the old council members came out of hiding and reopened the temple on Coruscant. They are trying to get some young padawans to begin training the next generation of Jedi. There aren't many of them though. Atris went and is sort of running things there. It won't remain that way long if I have any say about it. That vile woman has poisoned enough minds." Bastila said with some attitude in her voice.

I was disgusted at the thought of Atris running the rebuilt Order. She was not near a strong enough leader to set things on the right track. That and she was borderline insane.

Lieutenant Green was quiet for only a moment before interrupting the silence. "Matthew, I have some good news for you. I have called some master mechanics from the surface of the planet to do some modifications to your ship. Don't worry though, they aren't going to mess anything up, and I can guarantee it. Your on-board mechanic, Bao-Dur, has drawn all the blueprints and will be supervising the whole operation. Not one bolt will be tightened without his permission."

"What will these 'modifications' be?" I asked.

"Increased crew space, as well as 4 personal quarters with sound dampened walls. The personal quarters will be attached to the pilot's quarters, next to each current crew room, and one in the garage. The center rooms cooking range will be updated and the cargo hold will be downsized to make up for the larger crew quarters. And again don't worry. The additional rooms will not noticeably slow your ship."

"Well, you really thought this out didn't you?" I asked impressed.

"Well it was my idea to modify your ship. Your mechanic took care of the rest. Thank him. I will only be supplying the few materials needed to get the job done." He replied, sounding pleased with himself. "Also, the cybernetic doctor that Carth contacted will be on the station and ready to speak to you within the hour. He will contact you on your personal com-link once he arrives."

"Don't worry at all," Carth spoke up, "he knows the 'importance' of him doing a good job. I explained to him thoroughly what his work could mean to the Republic." His eyes cut to the open door which caused me to glance over my shoulder. Peaking around the door stood a young man. Maybe 17 or 18. What was interesting about him was his obvious resemblance to Carth and his powerful force aura.

"Ah, Dustil." He said, beaming. "I'll be right there." The young man disappeared around the doorway with a quick nod. "Will you please excuse me. I'll be right back." He hurriedly rushed around the corner.

"Well then. Everyone has children these days it seems." I said jokingly.

"Yes it definitely is in style." Bastila said in an unusual sarcastic tone for her usually serious demeanor. "Anyways," She said back to her usual self, "I know this is not something you want to hear, but the Republic needs you once again."

"Oh, no. I think I knew where this is going." I said glumly, having felt the recent disturbances in the Force.

"I can feel Revan reaching out to me. I have felt his presence often enough to know he is alive, but recently, it is like he is calling me. For some reason, I believe you can feel it to. You recently awakening to the Force and slaying the Sith lords might have attracted the attention of an even greater evil than Darth Traya." I cringed slightly at the name. "Revan is no fool and would certainly know this." She paused briefly. "He needs our help."

Everything she said confirmed what the Force had been telling me. I knew it was time to go and discover what exactly Revan had been doing. I was so scared. I could almost hear the council spewing off about how fear lead to the Dark Side, but I didn't care. I was genuinely scared.

"I too have felt it, Bastila. It's time to for us to find him." I nodded.

"Not us, Matt. You." Brianna said solemnly. I looked down to Brianna, a bit stunned.

"This is something you must do alone, Matthew. The Force has shown me it is the only way. If you take anyone else with you, they won't come back. Not any member of your crew, and none of Revan's old crew." Bastila said. "We have reached out to Revan's former companions, and they have all agreed to aid the Republic and by the time you return, they will all be gathered on Coruscant and Dantooine to aid the Jedi Order."

"What of my friends? What will happen to them while I'm gone."

"Your companions will have their own choice of what they want to do. They are free to return to normal lives if they please."

I almost laughed out loud of the thought of my companions trying to lead normal lives. For some reason I felt that their lives now belonged to the Republic, as mine and Revan's did.

"Don't worry Bastila, I'm sure you will be able to rely on my companions for the foreseeable future." I said reassuringly.

"Still, the choice remains theirs. They will be free to decide whatever fate they want. Although, I'm not so sure your journey this time will be a long one. You may return sooner than you think." Bastila responded.

About that time Carth walked back into the room.

"Ah, nice of you to join us again." I said lightly, despite the seriousness of the conversation.

"I'm sorry. I was already aware of what was to take place. Bastila has known the next course of action for some time. The Force is a mysterious entity and I'm quite glad I'm not a lightsaber wielding Jedi. Keeps things simple." He joked in return.

I laughed lightly before asking, "So, when am I supposed to leave?"

"That's completely up to you, Matthew. You know yourself better than I, and you will know when you are ready." Bastila said.

"Well, I definitely have a lot to think about," I said, my mind starting to spin, "And I need some time with my friends. I will see you guys later. May the Force be with with you."

Carth and Green nodded, while Bastila returned the common Jedi phrase. I walked into the holding cells to have a quick word with HK. "Any trouble with the prisoner, HK?"

"Statement: None at all, Master. He is the common meatbag prisoner. Trying to remain silent for no apparent reason. If you just say the word, I assure you Master, he will say something. If not, I will continue to watch him, Master." The droid said while staring at the humanoid. I found it humorous he was nearly three feet taller than the poor sentient.

"No, no need to torture him, he has been through enough. But please, run an analysis of your memory core and see if you can find anything out about him. Maybe you came across him in your previous adventures."

"Observation: Now that you mention it, he does look familiar. I will see if I can find anything on him. Hopefully, this does not require the Iridonian to dig through any more of my memory core."

I walked out of the holding cell's room and back towards the apartment complex with Brianna. There was much my companions needed to know.

I walked into the foyer of Complex C and saw that once again, Visas' door was the only one closed. Brianna brushed past me and into our room and closed the door behind her. Bao-Dur was looking over blueprints, undoubtedly the Ebon Hawks. I noticed that he now had a new remote drifting aimlessly around the room. T3 sat in a corner of Bao-Dur's room quietly beeping.

"Great job on a new companion." I called to Bao-Dur.

"You know me, General. I've always found it easier to make friends with droids over people. I find they don't ask as many questions." He said with his usual dry tone of joking.

Mandalore was studying the inside of his helmet for an unknown reason. He was in his silver armor. The proof that he was leader of the Mandalorians.

"Not feeling protected enough, Canderous?" I joked to him.

"This just makes it harder for people to stab me in the back." He said, patting the thick plates of Mandalorian armor on his back.

"Aren't worried that will make people want to stab you in the back more?" I said, keeping in mind the recent Mandalorian wars.

"Any one with half a brain can tell I'm a Mandalorian with or without this armor. It doesn't matter what I wear." He said, filled half with pride and half with bitterness. "I dare anyone to challenge me in or out of this. The war is over." He huffed, signifying he had said his piece.

Although he was probably well into his fifties or even his sixties, I would have hated to see anyone, combat hardened or not, get into a fight with the now aging Mandalorian. I felt that most of the time, the odds were in his favor in a fight. He had a way of making sure he won. In wars or otherwise.

"It's fine, Canderous. They remember your people's aid in the recent battle here on the station. No one will bother you." I said, not trying to agitate him further.

"I'm still leaving this on." He grunted under his breath.

I looked to the right and noticed Mira and Atton lounging together on the sofa in the room they shared. They were watching the holonet.

Atton looked over and noticed. He gave me a sly look.

"Guys, I have something important to tell you." I said, clasping my hands nervously.

"Wait, let me guess." Atton said, "We have to chase a lost Jedi across the galaxy."

"Actually, I have to chase a Jedi across the galaxy." I corrected.

"You said I, like, only you would be going." Mira said with a nervous laugh.

"Yes. Only I will be leaving." I confirmed to them.

"And which Jedi is it that you will be chasing this time, Matthew? Another member of the old Order?" Bao-Dur asked, looking up from his blueprints.

"I guess you could say that." I said.

"Well, which one?" Canderous spat impatiently.

"Revan." I said as I watched the ripples of mild shock travelling through my companions. There was a brief moment of silence and shock before Visas' door slid open.

"You are a fool to think you could go alone. Revan could not complete this journey alone and now this Jedi Bastilla and this supposedly 'honorable' Carth Onasi wish to send you away to rescue someone who left everything he knew behind. Including you, Matthew. Are you to do the same and abandon your whole life for the sake of the Republic." She spat, angered.

I stayed calm. I had expected a similar response. My friends were pretty predictable. "I am not Revan, Visas. Yes, I haven't been alone this entire journey, and I understand that. You have all helped me so much." I said while looking around. "I don't want to do this alone. I *have* to. There is no other way that the Force will allow."

"You speak as if you know exactly what the Force wants. As if it leads you in everything. You are supposed to use the Force to strengthen yourself. The Force does not need you for it's strength." She said.

"Is that what your Master Darth Nihilus taught you, or is that something you learned on your own Visas?" I said, letting the words sink in like a cold vibroblade. "You are correct, the Force does not need me for it's strength. The Force will always be. But, if you are willing to just open your mind, the Force can use you to bring balance, and peace," I paused searching for words, "and even power." I let the silence stay. I said what I had needed to her.

I begin to walk away right as T3 let out a long, "DRRREEEEETTTT."

"No, T3. I have to go alone." I said to the ambitious droid.

He let out a series of beeps, telling me of the locked navicomputer on the Ebon Hawk, and how only he possessed codes to Revan's destination.

"Okay. You can simply give them to me and I can unlock the computer myself." I said, not wanting to budge.

He beeped again, telling me there was no way I could understand the language of the program that possessed the unlock code, and that he could not give them to me even if he tried.

I tried to grasp how complex the security of the navicomputer on the Ebon Hawk could actually be, but decided to just leave it as I thought for later. I understood that the small astromech droid had just backed me into a corner, and I couldn't leave without him. He was infamously stubborn. It would cut years of travel out of my journey to bring him with me.

"Fine, but only because it is absolutely necessary. We feel the force doesn't want sentients. I can't see the harm in one droid." I said, defeated.

He beeped happily in triumph.

"Well I can't say I'm happy that you aren't bringing us, but I'm more concerned on what to do without you while you are gone. I get bored easy, and I feel that the bounty hunting business on Nar Shaddaa is slow right now. Go-To is probably upset about his droid. And his yacht. And his bounty hunters. You get the point." Mira said.

"You are free to return and live normal lives if you so please. Normal, as you can return to what you were doing before we met." I said

"So sleeping in Holding Cells?"

"Serving a Sith Lord?"

"Working for a crime lord that is seriously pissed about his huge ship getting blown up?"

"Serving a 'Jedi' historian that collects Sith holocrons?" Brianna said leaning to our apartments doorway.

I looked around. I hadn't noticed most of my companions had nothing to go to. They were committed to me in a way I hadn't realized before. T3 and HK were actually my property now. Strange.

"Canderous and I are really the only ones that can go back to our previous lives." Bao-Dur said, just loud enough to be heard by everyone.

"Actually, I am returning. I am leaving on a personal shuttle this evening. Kelborn and Bralor have contacted me, and asked for me to return as soon as possible. Several new clans we met in our travels have come to Dxun bringing others with them, and Clan Ordo is growing rapidly. They need me to come and instate a strong leadership once again." Canderous said. I couldn't tell if I heard a bit of sadness in his voice or not.

"Wow, just like that huh? Aren't running from the fight are you?" Atton said, sounding a bit hurt to see Canderous willing to leave so soon.

"Don't be foolish. Mandalorians fight to the death or sure defeat. There is no retreat. I am going to prepare an army." He said, lifting his head high.

I guess he noticed the color drain from my face.

"Don't worry. It is not to challenge the Republic. I have a nose for war, and I sense another one coming. The Republic won't be able to stand this one without help." He said, reassuring me. "The Mandalorians will not be enemies this time, but allies, as we were here on the second battle of Telos."

"Great. You will be a mighty Mandalore." I said. I noticed how much he actually appreciated the compliment.

"Well that still leaves the rest of us." Atton said.

"I do have a request for you, but you are free to return to whichever lives you wish." I said, hoping my companions would help out.

"Well?" Mira questioned, ready for what I had to ask of them.

"I want you to travel to Coruscant, and help Bastilla rebuild the Jedi Order. It's too important to the Republic to remain weak or destroyed. You are some of the only Jedi left." I said looking around, searching there faces. "Now, this is what you must understand. You will be devoting your life to the Republic and it's interests. You will be leaders, role models, and guardians of the peace. It is not something easy I ask of you, and I almost want you to say no." I grinned and met Atton's eyes, "Almost."

"Count me in." Mira said, nodding.

"Yep, I'm in to. I'm not letting her out do me." Atton said, while giving Mira a soft nudge.

Bao-Dur nodded, and Visas remained silent for a moment.

She spoke up, "I have seen what the Sith and the Dark Side are capable of. The Republic needs to be strong. But still I would not fight for it if you did not ask it of me. I only will do this for you." She said before leaning her head down.

I looked at Brianna who just cut her eyes and walked back into the room before shutting the door.

"Alright, well that settles that I guess." About that time, The com-link attached to my right wrist blinked a few times. It appeared that the Cybernetics doctor was trying to contact me.

"Excuse me." I told my companions as I slipped out into the hallway. I accepted the call. An aging Human appeared on my screen. He was quite standard in his features and nothing stood out about him besides his shining bald head.

"General Surik. I have heard great things about you. It is great to see you." The old doctor said.

"Yes hello, Doctor. I'm sorry but I never caught your name." I told the polite man

"Oh, it's no problem. You can just call me Doctor H." He said with a gleam in his eyes.

"Anyways, Admiral Onasi expressed the importance of this operation to me in great detail, and I want to start immediately. There is a medical module very close to you, I'm sure you've seen it in your travels?" He questioned.

I quickly remembered the small medical module tucked back into the wing where the Ithorians resided. "Yes I've been in there a time or two."

"Perfect! If you aren't busy, I would actually like to meet you there right now. I'm currently setting up my equipment with my surgery team in the room now."

"Oh, great! I'll be right over. See you soon Doc." I closed the small hologram and briskly walked towards the medical room.

I unsealed the magnetic door and the Doctor met me as I stepped in. He was a pretty short Human, maybe 5'6", and he had to look up to talk to me. "It's great to see you so quickly, Matthew, thank you for coming so soon."

"No problem. I'm looking to get this fixed as soon as possible." I said holding up my bandaged left arm.

"Oh that's isn't near as bad as I had imagined it would be. It isn't hard to fix until about three inches below the joint. Sadly, I see that you did lose the joint. Strange that it looks as if it was crushed rather than severed with a light saber, as I had guessed." I cringed at the thought. I didn't remember how I lost it, and the thought of me being awake during rubble crushing my hand was a bit nauseating. I was glad I was unconscious when it happened.

The doctor noticed my paleness. "Anyways, come have a seat in this room and we will scan the arm and go from there!" He said clasping his hands.

I walked into the room to the right of the inner door, which had been previously sealed, but was now opened to the doctor and the other four of his team.

They put several nodes on my left arm, and ran a very weird, thick liquid through an I.V. "I've never seen stuff like this before. What's it do?" I asked watching the small bag empty and watching my veins take on the grey color of the gel.

"This stuff is very similar to what electronic specialists and mechanics use to check where electric endings are, so they can replace short circuits and the like. I'm sure you have learned by now that most sentient species produce a readable amount of electricity. So through a couple decades of Republic science, we have learned ways to re-purpose it to use in organics. The science behind it is very complex as you can imagine. We have discovered very few side-effects to using this the past few years, and none of them are permanent or even last longer than a week." He said while staring into a computer screen.

"What are the side-effects?" I asked.

"The number one reported one is numbness. Not complete immobility, but similar to when you sleep on your arm. This is usually gone within eight hours." His eyes never left the screen.

"So, I'm guessing this is to see where my nerves and veins where cut off?" I asked, trying to figure out it's purpose.

"Exactly. Then, using a complex computer program, when can then decide where to attach the artificial veins and nerves from your cybernetic hand to you."

"So is my hand going to be organic?"

"Sadly, that technology is beyond even me and all of my colleagues. We can only replace them with metal alloys. Though within the next millennia we should be able to do such cybernetic replacements, at a elevated price. I am glad to say I will not live long enough to see such advancements in my field." Despite the common sadness in such a realization, his eyes still sparkled with life and happiness. "However, your hand strength and toughness will be notably increased."

I knew of few people who were not truly saddened at the thought of their deaths. They were either Force users, or those who had lost much throughout their life. I easily guessed he was not a Force user. The pass several decades had been very hard on billions, maybe trillions, of people within the Republic. With all the wars, planets being bombed, assassinations, and crashing economies on several worlds, I could only speculate at the several hardships he had endured.

"A quick question then, Doc. Why aren't soldiers just given a large amount of cybernetic implants? The most I have heard of is a leg, or hand, maybe an eye or ear. And usually it is only if they lose said appendage."

"Well, at a certain point, most sentient brains have an extremely hard time comprehending all the artificial parts. The subconscious understands that the appendages it's brain is controlling is not it's own. Reflexes deteriorate, there are artificial 'muscle' spasms, and in a handful of cases, seizures. But do not worry, this is nonexistent in single hand replacement. On top of that, I am the best there is within the Republic. There will be no issues I assure you." I thought quietly about his explanation for a while, leaving only a few beeping sounds and rustling to echo in the room.

"Okay then," The doctor stood and walked towards me and began inspecting all the nodes and wires hanging off of my left arm, "If you can just sit very still for me, for just ten minutes, we will be done for the day."

"How long will it take you to get the readings?"

"Only a few hours. Four or five maybe. Then tomorrow morning we will meet and begin your surgery. That will take about four hours as well." He said, nodding.

"I thought it usually took days to acquire those readings." I said, remembering many commoners complaining about doctor's taking forever to do just about anything.

"That's nonsense that most doctor's do to add in a middleman that they can charge extra for. The doctor's that do this usually use this as a tactic to pull in more credits for themselves. It's very underhanded being that they, or their nurses, can easily read the reports." He said, frustrated.

"That's very wrong." I said, not understanding how the whole thing worked but wanting to agree with the nice old man.

"It is wrong. But it is not in anyway illegal, so they will continue to do it. Anyways, if you can spare five more minutes of your time, we will be done." He went and sat back down at the computer to monitor the readings he was getting.

I looked at the clock and noticed I had already been there for about forty-five minutes. I didn't think I had even been here that long and began wandering where the time went. In a few short minutes the doctor stood.

"Okay then, Matthew, you're good to go." The nurses that had been walking around checking on, and setting up different pieces of equipment began unhooking me from the nodes and I.V., and soon I was ready to go. I shook the doctors hand and began walking back towards the complex. I looked at a large clock and saw it was a little after noon. I still had a long day ahead of me.


	4. Chapter 4: Replacement

Just a quick heads up! _Italics_ signify force communications in Matthew's mind. Just to keep everyone from being confused. Enjoy. Merry Christmas.

Chapter 4: Replacement

I walked through the hallway and passed the Ithorian compound. I peeked my head in. They were all doing what I had grown accustomed to them doing in the short time I had spent with them. Seemingly aimlessly wandering, glancing at terminals as they passed them, and gazing out the windows. I wondered how they accomplished anything, but I had heard dozens of stories of their accomplishments on the surface. Maybe they were more lively out in the fields.

I quickly ducked out, hoping Chodo or Moza wouldn't spot me and try talking to me. I didn't mind their company, but I would have to turn them down if they needed any sort of help. I had a hard time saying no. Kriea had tried to teach me that helping others constantly brought about weakness. I had a hard time learning such teachings. I remember vaguely her murmuring after one such lesson, "Bad times breed strong people. Strong people make good times. Good times breed weak people. Weak people make bad times."

It was just something I could not understand. To think of how I could be the part of a never ending cycle of pain and happiness, weakness and strength, wars and peace. I let the thought pass. The Force was far to mysterious and complex to use one lesson and try to understand it's ways. Maybe in time I would know more of such mysteries.

 _"Interesting, Matt. I should really listen more. No telling what I would find out."_

Brianna. She learned so fast.

 _"Please don't do that. It would embarrassing to us both."_

 _"It's okay. I try not to invade your privacy. Most of the time I accidentally catch stray thoughts. I wanted to see if I could communicate this time."_ She explained. I was nearing the apartments now. I reached out and only felt Brianna and Visas, which was strange. Where was everyone at? I didn't give it a second thought.

 _"Well it's good you don't pry. Sometimes you hear and sense things you don't like. I have learned to block out many of your's and our friends stray thoughts. I got red-faced a few too many times listening to Mira's thoughts."_

I turned into the complex and walked into the suite. I found Brianna once again with her eyes scrunched tightly closed and her forehead crinkled from concentration.

"How much of it did you hear?" I wondered, more curious about her progress in the skill than her overhearing something I didn't want her to.

She looked up and responded, "I first started to listen when you where thinking about the strange I.V. and the nurses shuffling around. It was very hard to reach those thoughts. I had started trying to listen almost as soon as you left. Your mental blocks are nothing like anyone else I have tried it on. Even though Atton taught you most of it, it seems you are even better than he is. How far away you were seemed to cause a bit of difficulty as well."

I thought for a second. With my powerful connections to the force, I could very easily see how I could have easily learned quickly how to master the technique. I remembered a few dark Jedi within the Malachor academy had been so powerful in their minds, they resisted my force pushes and some lighting. I doubted they had extensive trying in force resist techniques, but rather adopted them as they grew in power.

I had quickly mastered the force push during my padawan years, which was a feat the Masters of the Order praised me for, and Revan had taught me force lighting during the Mandalorian wars. No one had ever resisted either one of those in all my travels, besides only a handful of Masters I had sparred as a padawan.

I thought back on how scared I was to learn force lighting. Revan had told me how it easily rippled through the heavy Mandalorian armor, and was much more effective than many Jedi techniques. The Masters and Council members had always warned that channeling such raw power could bait some Jedi to the Dark Side, and when I finally let the lighting roar out of my hands for the first time, I understood what they meant. I had never handled something so uncontrollable, but at the same time, it was completely under my will. The power had felt so good leaving me, and reminded me of what kind of potential I had in the Force, and how much power I could have by serving the Dark Side. It was against what many old Jedi had taught me.

I recalled what my old Master Kavar had once told me, "Control your emotions, and during battle, never let your will to win, outgrow your will to do what is right. Sometimes doing whatever it takes to defeat an opponent does far more harm than good. Everything you do leaves echoes in the Force, and unleashing a large amount of power can bring a very strong lure of the Dark Side to you, and those around you. Imagine annihilating a Sith Lord in combat and knowing you can replace his leadership with your power and strength. A dangerous thought indeed."

"Matt!" Brianna snapped me out of my thought. "I was talking to you. Are you alright?"

"I'm doing fine. I'm just caught up in my own thoughts today." I said rubbing my eyes. "Anyways, why aren't you running around the station?"

"I knew you wouldn't be gone very long. Mira and Atton invited me out, but I didn't want to interrupt them. They enjoy each other a lot, and I didn't want to intrude. Bao-Dur is starting his work on the Ebon Hawk, and brought T3 with him. Mandalore left not to long ago to reach out to Kelborn. And I will not talk to Visas. So I just waited around for you." She told me.

"Hmm. Well since it's just us, I can think of a few ways to pass the time." I said winking at her.

"I don't understand?" She said a bit confused at my joke.

"I was thinking, ya' know." I took a step towards the bed, grinning.

"Nonsense, Matt. This place is hardly private enough for that. You will have to wait." She said with a huff.

"Oh, I was only joking Brianna." I said. In truth, I was only half-way joking, because if she took it serious I would not have turned her down. There was a few short knocks on the door. I unsealed it without checking who it was. Bad mistake.

A vibrosword thrust through the crack of the door as soon as it unsealed. If I would have been completely healed, I would have avoided the strike completely. However, I was still stiff, and pretty sore. The blade caught the outside of my thigh and blood pored out of the wound. If I would not have attempted to leap out of the way, it would have caught the major artery in my leg. A fatal wound. I felt the warmth of the blood pouring down over my knee before I had time to fall over. I heard the usually combat ready Brianna scream.

The door unsealed, and there stood... a Telos commoner.

"It's time you and all the trouble you have brought to this galaxy end. With the end of your life, comes the end of many struggles." He growled. He raised the blade above his head, and brought it down sloppily, but with a lot of force. I rolled out of the way, using the Force to quicken my reflexes.

As he brought the sword back in a wide arc, I gathered my strength into the palm of my right hand and violently pushed toward him, channeling the Force. He flew threw the air nearly forty feet to the other side of the complex and into the other sealed suite door. His head smacked against the door. Hard. A bit of blood trickled down out of his mouth, and I saw his life leave his eyes from across the room.

I pushed down on my thigh with my right hand and centered myself. I focused on good things, and began to feel the large cut slowly close. It was much easier to use Force heal on a willing subject. Part of the reason why some of my wounds from Malachor were not already healed, because I would have rather let my life end, than be healed. However, now was different, and the wound closed, and the blood quit flowing. There was only a small scab, about three inches long left. I stood up, and my knee buckled a bit, still weak from the whole encounter. I would not be able to do much of anything with the Force or physically until a long bit of rest.

I turned to Brianna, who was just looking at me with horror. "You killed that man."

"Yes he is dead, Brianna." I hung my head, the scenario becoming real. I had killed a commoner with ruthless efficiency. Killing soldiers, thugs, and Sith was different than killing a regular man. During combat things were weighed differently in people's mind. Usually it is you or them. That was not the case this time. I knew that I could have easily disarmed him and handled the situation. At the time though, I let my emotions get to me. As a Sith would.

"Don't think like that, Matt. You were simply rushed into a situation with no preparation. You did the first thing that you knew would keep you, and I safe." She said standing and walking over to me. "We need to contact Lieutenant Green. He will handle it."

I opened the com-link and contacted him. He opened the call with wide eyes.

"Don't worry, Matthew. I saw the whole thing. I have a squad on their way to secure the area and clean up. I am so sorry." I nodded to him and closed the small hologram. I looked very quickly and saw the small security probe attached the ceiling of the foyer of the apartment complex. From it's angle, it would be able to spot everything coming in and out of the complex, and anything entering and leaving each room.

Visas's door unsealed and she had her lightsaber clutched in her right hand.

"I sensed a disturbance in here, what happened?" Her voice trailed as she sensed the deceased young Telos man crumpled against the door. Her head snapped back to me, and she noticed the now small wound on my thigh.

"I have failed you, Matthew. I am sorry I did not sense his ill will." She said as she bowed her head.

"It is hard to know of anything going on while shutting yourself out of the world and from all your friends." I replied harshly. Brianna laid a hand gently on my shoulder, sensing my building anger, and calming me. It kept me from saying something far worse. "But, it is okay. I was not prepared either. We can all do better, and we still have much to learn." She whipped around and resealed her door, obviously not hearing what I had just said about shutting out the world. I hoped she would find her peace soon.

I heard the footsteps of the Telos Officers. I also heard HK's power core drumming. I figured he wouldn't have been far behind any kind of fight. Eight of them tactically came into the room, sweeping each room and dipping in and out of the complex. HK walked in and scanned the lifeless body.

"Unnecessary Statement: Well done, Master. It seems that you have eliminated the assailant with one decisive move. Excellent efficiency. If only I would have seen it myself." His eyes lit up at the end of his sentence.

One of the officers approached me. "Are you okay, Master Surik? Do you need a medical droid?" He asked concern marking his face.

"No, I'm fine." I motioned to the mostly healed cut on my thigh.

His eyes were wide when he noticed it. "But, Master Surik, Lieutenant Green informed me you would most certainly have an open wound that would need to be addressed."

"It seems Green has underestimated me once again." I said with a grin. I nodded to the young man and walked past him. I approached HK, who was scanning the body.

"Query: Master, how did he manage to strike you? I have seen you dodge highly trained assassins, yet this common man nearly killed you with one blow." He asked. I didn't know if he was insulting me or not.

"I am still stiff and I am not healed completely. He simply caught me at the wrong place at the wrong time." I told him.

"Amused Statement: Master, it seems that even the toughest of you organics are so fragile. Here you are, a hero of the Republic, nearly bested by a common man." HK said while standing up straight.

"Yes. Seems you are correct. Watch out or one day you may be out done by a simple technician. Even the toughest of you droids are so fragile when you pull out the right wires."

His eyes pulsed, but he did not respond. A TSF officer walked by my side. I noticed he was a few inches shorter than me. His rank appeared to be Master Sergeant, and I guessed he was probably one of Green's finest men.

"Sir," He spoke up, "We have identified this man looking for any sort of motive he may have had. He appears to have been a electrician at Czerka Corporation before Jana Lorso's imprisonment. Although you causing him to lose his job is a lead, we hardly think it is enough motive for him to try and end your life. There is plenty of work for someone of his credentials on the Station, and the surface. We are obviously going to investigate further, but please don't expect much of us. We are stretched so thin, Master Surik, even with the Republic forces lending a hand here on the station." He ended apologetically.

"I understand Sergeant. Please don't fret to much. We will definitely be prepared next time." I told him with compassion in my voice. I could sense a lot of stress in his mind. He was probably run ragged given recent events. That and he was just required to fight a full-scale battle only weeks ago and he was merely a officer and not a soldier. I could only guess what he was going through.

I did my best to steady his mind, and I felt his mind get a little lighter and his shoulders relaxed a bit.

He nodded and smiled at me, then turned to exit. A medical capsule arrived with a few first responders. They cleaned up the small pool of blood and covered the body before loading him into the hovering metallic tube. There would be no need for a investigation of the crime scene, as everything was caught on tape and nothing could be prosecuted against me. Almost everyone on the station would merely think I defended myself and accidentally killed the man. Only a select few would know that I intentionally threw him hard enough to kill him. Most of those were my friends.

The few remaining officers escorted the medical capsule out.

"Statement: Master, I am now going to return and watch the small male." HK then left without waiting for a response from me.

It once again left Brianna and I to ourselves.

"I believe you need to see Bastila, Matt." Brianna said walking up to me. I was staring at the blank place in the floor where the young man had died. The more I thought of what I did, the heavier the weight became.

"Why do you think that?" I asked while looking up to meet her pleading eyes.

"You just have so much on your mind and affecting your heart. If you let it stay it will change you. Bastila is very wise, Matt, despite her age. She can help you." I thought for only a moment. I knew that even if nothing came of it, it would make Brianna happy for me to see Bastila.

"Okay, I'll go see her." At that time I heard two pairs of rushing feet approach the door. Both Brianna and I pulled our lightsabers off our belts.

Around the corner rushed Atton and Mira, leaving us both sighing at our unneeded edginess.

"A bit antsy guys?" Atton asked as soon as he saw me reattaching my lightsaber to my belt.

"You could say that." I said rubbing my face.

"Carth called us all and told us what happened. He told us to keep an eye out. We decided to come back and check on you three. We passed the medical capsule when we exited the shuttle" Atton said.

"Yes, we have it under control now. It was a good scare though." Brianna told Atton.

"I need to go speak to Bastila. Can you and Mira stay with Brianna and Visas? I would feel a lot better about leaving." I asked looking to my trusted friend.

"Yeah, no problem. If Canderous or Bao-Dur show up, we will tell them where you went, and that you're fine." Atton told me.

"Thank you very much." I turned into the suite and sealed the door. I quickly changed my ruined pants, I had several changes of light grey robes so it was no issue. I threw the ruined ones in the trash chute.

I walked out the door and saw that Atton, Mira and Brianna, were in the suite adjacent of mine and Brianna's. They were just lounging and casually talking, no doubt about me or the recent incident. I felt for Visas. I sensed a bit of Darkness in her, but not an alarming amount, or anything that caught me off guard. Truthfully, it was no more than the Darkness within me. I would talk to her soon though. I quit reaching out and began walking to Lieutenant's Green office.

I walked to the Security office and saw an old man talking to Bastila under his breath. Carth wasn't in there, and Green was at his desk. The old man turned around and looked at me. He had a gray goatee and a completely bald head. I quickly recognized him, and I began to remember the stories of the old master and pictures I had seen of him at the academy as a Padawan. I also remembered some very harsh words that the old masters had said about him when Revan and I were children in the Jedi academy, and when he was mentioned how many masters would sort of cringe hearing his name.

"Well, if it isn't the infamous Jolee Bindo." I said while grinning, and recalling several stories about the old coot.

"Huh? Are you talking to me?" He grunted.

"Your name is Jolee Bindo, is it not?" I said crinkling my eyebrows, knowing in myself it could be no one else.

"Ah, I guess I could be. It doesn't really matter who I am though. It matters who you are." He said.

"Why would it matter who I am?" I asked.

"Because you matter to the Force." I noticed after each sentence he was forming more and more of a smile.

"So, are you saying you do not matter to the Force any longer?"

"Maybe. Do you think I matter?" He said scratching his short gray goatee.

"I do not see why you wouldn't. You are a Force user. It must have taken to you for some reason." I stated, pretty sure of myself.

"So you think because I use the Force I am more important than Carth, or even Lieutenant Green?" He said now showing teeth to my growing signs of exasperation.

"Well, no." I said with a sigh.

"Do you think you are more important than me?"

"Well why would I be?"

"Well you do use the Force, and it seems it has taken to you, even more so than myself."

"What makes you think that?" I asked, questioning how he would know anything of my capabilities.

Suddenly, he outstretched his right hand and I felt a blast of intense air blow past me. I was still on edge from the attack, so I gathered all my willpower and planted my feet. I barely even slid. My hair had went wild from the Force push. Bastilla had a wild look in her eyes, and Green sat behind his deck with his mouth hanging open and papers falling down around him from the force of the air blasting by.

While I was patting my hair down I shouted, "What is wrong with you!"

"Well, nothing that can be proven." He said nearly laughing out loud. "I was only proving a point."

"There was no other way to do it?" I asked, my voice still raised.

"Well, possibly. But I am tired of all this senseless banter. That spoke louder than a thousand words of all your feats could have." He stated bending over to catch his breath from laughter. "I am entirely to old for this nonsense."

"Why are you even here? To see what kind of trouble you can cause I guess."

"Absolutely." Was all he said, while standing up straight. He just looked at me blankly

I looked over and raised my hands to Bastilla. She rolled her eyes and shrugged her shoulders. I doubted she got much out of the crazy old Jedi either.

"Look. You are reckless just like Revan is. I am just here to make sure you don't do anything to crazy." Jolee explained.

"Crazy like what?" I asked.

"I don't know. Quit asking me so many questions. I will know what your not supposed to do when you are doing it."

"How will that help anything?"

"Again with the questions." He rubbed his face. "Did they teach you anything on Dantooine?"

"They taught me much, more than you have." I said, feeling a bit hurt at his disrespect to the masters that had be in charge over the academy. All four of them were dead now, thanks to Darth Nihilus. I found myself suddenly missing them.

"Well, they tried to teach me but I learn things in my own way. I didn't understand the whole good guy, bad guy stuff. So they gave me the boot."

"You left the Order, you weren't kicked out." I said, remembering the records of him.

"Now that's just what they want you to believe!" He said raising a finger. "Or did I leave?" He said, slowing bringing his finger back down. "Anyways! It doesn't even matter. I don't matter because you are stronger in the Force than me."

"That is not at all what I said!"

"It's what was implied."

"Ugh!" I shouted. I was completely frustrated and wondered how Revan had put up with this man. His temper was far worse than mine. "Forget it. This is pointless."

"Is it pointless, Matthew?" Jolee asked, now completely serious. "What really matters? What counts? Do you even understand what you are here for, or your purpose?"

I was taken aback at the depth of his question. What did matter? What did the Force even want from me, or why would it need me at all? I began to think, but it only made me more confused.

"We will talk later." With that, he left the room. I snapped my eyes to Lieutenant Green, looking for a reason to release my pent up frustrations. He simply stood up calmly and left the room as well.

Bastilla looked at me with concern. "Are you okay, old friend?"

Her steady voice calmed my nerves, "Well, I was a bit distraught about that man that attacked me. But now after that it seems as if that's nothing. Everything just kinda swept into my mind and it feels like my head is going to pop."

"I figured this was nothing new. You've been through a lot. You always have been so torn. The Force pulling you every which way. It has what made you strong." Bastilla said.

"How did Revan ever deal with him? He's absolutely insane." I asked, still frustrated at the old Jedi.

"He is much wiser than he admits. He seems to understand some things that others would not. I'm not so sure he is crazy at all. That and he is a realist, just like Revan. He does his best to change things, but always accepts the Galaxy and Republic for what they are."

"Well, I've heard rumors he spent far to much time in the Shadowlands. That surely counts for some insanity." I said jokingly.

She just shrugged, not convinced. "It does not matter. He will reveal his intentions in time. But, I sense you are very discouraged. Are you okay, Matthew?" Her eyes showed a deep compassion, something that many masters had tried to teach her to keep repressed. She seemed to be a model Jedi of the order besides her deep passions. Her child was evidence of some of those passions.

"I just feel like I am on the edge of a great darkness, Bastilla. As if at any moment, I will be under the influence of the Dark Side. It seems as if each trial I face brings me closer and closer to a great evil hidden inside of myself." I said, with my head hung down low.

"Matthew, I can still sense that you have a great wound of the Force in you. That is a wound of the Dark Side. But you must understand, Matthew, it is not a darkness of your own, but of the many evils you have encountered. Darth Traya, Nihilus, Sion, all of it all the way back to Malachor, when you severed the Force the first time. It is all welled up inside of you. It is weighted on your shoulders, I can almost see it." Bastilla told me.

I thought for a moment, trying to think of any reason she could be wrong. Sadly, it all made sense, and I had felt the pressure growing every since the first horrors of Malachor. That was when I truly realized what evils the Galaxy was capable of. In tough times such as these many were sure to be hurt, even the strongest among them, even the likes of Revan, and Malak.

"Well it ever go away? It's so hard to just keep fighting like this." I asked, weary.

"I do not know." She let her answer hang in the air before continuing, "There is always a reason to fight though. You can always resist, always push back. If you don't fight, then who will? Can you trust your friends to carry on if you do not?"

I thought hard on the question. Were my friends loyal to me, or the greater good? Kriea had once told me they would all follow me blindly to their deaths. Would they follow the Republic to it's death as well? What loyalties did they truly have? Visas had even admitted that she would aid the Order only because I had asked her too. How similarly did my other companions think about my request?

She interrupted my thoughts, "There is a much bigger reason you must find Revan, other than the Republic missing him. He knows many things, and he only revealed a very small portion of those things to me before he left. He said that such knowledge was dangerous. But other than that, he is the only one that knows how to face this threat on the edge of the Republic. The only thing I believe he was wrong about, was that he thought he could handle it alone. I believe all along that he needed you."

"You think me and him together can stop this great threat?" I asked.

"I believe that once you two are together again, the path will be much clearer." She said with a nod. "All that's left after you are restored your hand, is for you to prepare, and then leave to find Revan. But I have something that I want you to take with you." She reached into the inner pocket of her personalized dark orange and brown Jedi robes and pulled out a Mandalorian style mask. My eyes locked onto it, realizing immediately what it was.

"You have Revan's mask? I thought this was destroyed when his flagship was fired on." I said, shocked.

"No. It was knocked off of him, and I picked it up. I was worried that, if he ever came into contact with this, that his memories, and his old persona, the one tainted by the Dark Side, would be restored to him. I believe at this point in time though, he is ready to once again don the mask. He just, seems invincible with this. I remember when he turned to face the Jedi strike team and I when we had boarded his flagship. He stood over every Jedi in the room, and his armor made him seem even bigger. I remembered I had fought many dark Jedi before him, and there was a comfort in being able to know that you could defeat them. Looking at Revan, with his above average height, armor, and mask," She said, turning and inspecting the mask in her hand, "he seemed invincible. Unstoppable."

I thought briefly on the period of time he wore the mask during the wars. Without the mask he looked more human. It was easier to remember he was just a man, with all the weaknesses and vulnerabilities that implied. With the mask however, Revan was an icon, a symbol. He was the potter of history, an individual defined by his actions rather than his thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. That was the Revan we needed.

"I'll be ready by next week." I said quickly.

"That is an extremely short recovery. You have a surgery tomorrow." She informed me.

I only nodded and kept a straight face. I felt a pulse of force power being used. I hurried into the holding cells, where I had felt the disturbance. The small humanoid was meditating. HK's eyes were very dim and it sounded as if his power core was not fully functional. I realized the humanoid was trying to shut him down. I used the Force to try and drain him of his powers, and though relatively ineffective, when he noticed me trying to interrupt him, he quit and looked up. His power had been extremely strong, but completely unrefined, not even to padawan levels. HK's eyes got extremely bright, more than usual, and his core picked up to it's normal pace.

"Query: Master, is it to late to tear his limbs from his body? I realized to late what the meatbag was up to." He voiced was raised above normal.

"No, I still do not sense danger. He is just beginning to realize he can use the Force." I informed him beginning to realize the situation.

"Statement: Very well, Master. However, I do have something to inform you of. I have ran through all of my memories and all known data, trying to find out what species he is. I have had a few possibilities, for example, wondering if he was an albino of a certain species. Now with new knowledge of his Force sensitivity, I can say, without a doubt that he is a Sith'nar."

I knew of the species, as the order had educated Padawans in extensive species, languages, sectors, and planets especially on Force sensitive species.. However, Sith'nar had been estimated to be extinct for nearly fifteen thousand years.

"There's no way. For one, he is three feet to short for the average of the ancient Sith'nar males. And two, no one has seen one of his kind for ages." I said correcting him.

"Statement: Master, he very easily could be a dwarf from the result of inbreeding. Other than his height, he matches all known physical features of a Sith'nar male. Also, there is a very high possibility that a single family, with individuals capable of living for hundreds and even thousands of years, possessing extreme intelligence and physical capabilities, could easily keep a bloodline alive for thousands of years."

I thought to the original Sith, the actual species. They had been considered extinct several times in the history of the Republic. With their constant infighting and wars, they often fought themselves to 'extinction', only to emerge centuries later in impressive numbers. I wondered if some still lived since their last annihilation of themselves.

"It's all very interesting. But still, with him being silent we may never know. Thank you." I said while leaving.

I noticed while walking out of the office and toward the apartment complex it was almost time for an evening meal. I said goodbye to Bastilla and she nodded. I wondered if Mandalore was still on the station. I picked up my pace a bit. I was feeling much stronger, and my shortness of breath was nearly gone. My recovery was remarkable.

I quickly made it to the apartments, and saw three young Mandalorians in recruit armor clearing out Mandalore's few possessions and packing them into crates and plasteel containers. I saw the aging Mandalorian holding a small holocron in his hand speaking to Kelborn.

"I will arrive tomorrow shortly after sunset. I'm almost ready to go now. Just keep things running smoothly. Mandalore out." He turned and saw me.

"Ah, hello Matthew. I almost left without telling you. I'm not a patient man, even in my old age." He said, holding his helmet tucked underneath his arm.

"I wouldn't have been upset. You have many things to tend to, I'm certain." I said brushing my hair back.

"Yes. Kelborn just informed me that we have nearly tripled the Ordo clan since my departure. It seems as if the few Mandalorians we encountered spread word of a new Mandalore working with a Jedi. It caught the attention of many warriors. Kelborn said that he and Bralor recognized many of them from the war against the Republic. I am expected to return and solidify my leadership. I'm sure a few of them would like to kill me and take my place." He said, grinning at the thought of a fight.

"Um, you're not going to get assassinated right?" I asked, a bit concerned.

"Absolutely not. Not even a recruit Mandalorian would dare. It holds no honor, and another more powerful Mandalorian would only challenge him to a duel and kill him before the sun would set such as Bralor, or Kelborn." He said, sure of himself. "Either way, it is time for me to go. If I stall much longer I will find myself not wanting to leave." He approached me and grasped my right forearm, and I did his. It was a common way for warrior races like the Echani and Mandalorians to show respect in greetings or in their departure, much like a handshake.

He then motioned to the young recruits, who jogged up behind him. He was almost three inches taller than the young men, all who were my height. It seemed common for leaders of Mandalorian clans to be much larger. I remembered the Mandalore that Revan slayed was nearly 6 inches taller than Revan. I wondered if it was just genetics that caused them to be able to have the physical capabilities to fight to those leader positions and be such great warriors.

As I heard his footsteps trail off down the hallway, I whispered, "Later, old friend."

I turned to see Visas door was sealed. I checked for her to unsurprisingly find that she was still there. Her presence seemed weak, like she was hardly awake. I wrote it off. I walked into my suite. I was going to freshen up and go find Brianna for dinner. Maybe Atton and Mira would want to tag along. I sealed the suite door and opened the door to the refresher room. I barely walked in when I noticed Brianna. I quickly ducked my head back out. All I could tell was she lacked clothes, though I wasn't sure how much she lacked.

"Matthew, Is that you?" She asked. I could hear the smile in her voice.

"Um, yes. It is. I'm sorry, I didn't know you were in there." I said apologetically.

"It's fine, Matt. I was just going to freshen up and I thought we could go get dinner." She responded.

"That's what I was going to do actually."

"Well you can come in."

"I'll just wait on you."

I closed the door and went to pick out fresh clothes and a towel. As soon as I had found my clothes she stepped out wrapped in a towel. I tried not stare, but it wasn't easy. I walked into the room and quickly took a shower and brushed my teeth. I fixed my hair and stepped out dressed in some nice commoner attire, a khaki jacket, with a black shirt and dark grey pants, with black boots

Brianna was dressed in casual, form fitting white sleeveless shirt and pants, with brown dress boots. She looked great.

"Wow. You clean up nice." I said, admiring her style.

"Did I not look good before?" She asked, her eyebrows crinkled.

"No. No, that's not what I meant. It's just you dressed up and now..." I wasn't sure what to say.

"So you prefer me with clothes on?" She said standing and putting a hand on her hip.

"Well if we are going out into public then absolutely."

"Would you prefer to stay here then?" She said with a grin.

"Um. Are you feeling okay? That's a bit straightforward." I said wondering where she was taking this.

"Me? I'm fine. Just seeing what you think about all the advances you make to me. Let's go to dinner." She was giggling by the time she said dinner, and I chuckled lightly, my pride partially hurt by her lighthearted prodding.

We walked down the hallway holding hands and sharing smiles with each other.

"Do you know where we are gonna go tonight?" She asked me.

"Well we can go to the shuttle and look at the map, and see if we find anything."

We looked at the map and settled on a cantina that we couldn't pronounce right. It seemed to be Twi'lek, but it was a bit beyond my knowledge. It was only five minutes out, and it had a view of one of the restored sections of Telos. It was of course several dozen miles below us, but it promised a beauty to it.

When we arrived, it seemed as if the host recognized us and took us to a balcony seat without a question. We walked hand in hand, and he set us in a table by ourselves, that was out of hearing distance of the other patrons, who all seemed to be extremely wealthy. I guessed based on the clothes and personalities, many of them were donaters, and people who sponsored restoration projects planet side. I wondered how many had gave Czerka credits in good will, only for them to be used for evil.

We ordered as simply as we could off the menu, although the price was no problem. It was the complexity of the dishes that concerned us, as we had never been ones for fine dining.

It took a while to prepare, but the appetizers and entrees were excellent.

I looked over the balcony, and sure enough, there was a beauty to the planet. The Ithorians were miracle workers, and the restored area was several square miles. I could see clearly where the atmospheric shields that Bao-Dur had been crucial in designing and constructing marked the zone off. I couldn't tell if I could see certain large creatures roaming, or if it was just my imagination.

"It truly is beautiful." I said, looking up to notice Brianna was also inspecting the planet far below us. My eyes stayed on her.

"Me, or the planet, Matt?" She asked quietly. Her eyes stayed on the surface far below.

"Both." I said, still watching her.

She smiled, "It is. I believe, because of your help, it will continue to increase and grow. Czerka wanted nothing more than to turn it into a cold, well functioning machine, capable of bringing them credits. The Ithorians, however, wish to bring life. Life is a very complex, yet beautiful thing." She looked up at me and met my eyes, "That is one reason I wished to learn the ways of the Force. I believed that I would understand more about life, if I could learn to understand what directed many things of the universe into place."

"Do you think you see things more clearly now?" I asked.

"I'm not so sure. It's like learning things you should already know. It feel as if I am learning to breathe again, or concentrate again."

The sentence would have made no sense to many people. But me, having learned the ways of the Force twice, I felt I understood. Many Jedi and Sith could not survive after a sever from the Force, because it encased everything in them. Your mind, heart, lungs, even your brain, was taken over by the Force, and made it's own. It was so strange.

"Sometimes, my head begins to spin when I try to understand even the simplest things, but through the eyes of the Force. Master Vrook, in all of his stubborness, was actually a very wise man. He understood things, and was excellent at explaining them when I asked silly questions. I miss when I was a padawan, and he would visit Dantooine, the many things he would explain to Revan and I. He completely deserved the title of Master Jedi."

Our deserts came quickly, and we ate them, trying not to wolf them down. They were amazing. They had a very nice chocolate taste to them, but it had many other flavors infused that I didn't understand how they all tied together.

We tipped the host and waitress, and left a tip for the chefs for the remarkable food. We walked back to the shuttle, as it was closing in on ten o'clock, and I had an early morning planned with the Doctor.

I walked into the room, and changed into something to sleep in. I didn't give a second thought to Brianna being there. I was so comfortable with her, and we had only admitted our feelings to each not even two weeks ago. However, it had been building for sometimes. We had often caught each other staring multiple times during our spars and training sessions on our journeys in the Ebon Hawk.

She also changed and we climbed into bed without I word. I threw my right arm over her and pulled her close to me. I fell asleep instantly.

...

I woke to her pushing me, "Matt. It's time to get up. It's almost time to meet the Doctor. You're still snoring, Matt. Wake up."

My eyes snapped open. I wiped the drool from my chin.

She grinned, "Hello, sleepy head. Did you sleep well?"

"I did, thank you." I had to admit, I slept pretty good. I stood up and stretched. I rolled my shoulders back, trying to get out some of the stiffness from in between my shoulder blades and walked to the refresher scratching my chest.

I walked out. I had my grey Jedi pants on and my grey shirt, but decided not to put the over robe on.

"Well. I'm off to get a new hand." I grinned. She was sitting up in the bed, with the blankets up over her shoulders. She returned a smile.

I walked into the medical room shortly after. The doctor and his team were all there and ready. The doctor pointed to the reclined medical chair with a inviting smile. I sat down and let them began running I.V.'s and attaching things for monitoring my vitals. They all worked without any conversation.

"Okay," The doctor said, "We are all done, and if you are ready, we are going to put you to sleep for the surgery. We understand that due to your capabilities, you are quite resistant to most forms anesthesia. We are going to have to give you a normally lethal dose. Also, I need you to remove your shirt."

I simply nodded, remembering the HK-50's attempt on my life, by overdosing me with nearly four times the lethal dose, but only putting me to sleep for a relatively short time. I took off my shirt. I was not worried about the anesthesia.

I noticed a young female grabbed the I.V., and injected the drugs. She looked up and I smiled at her. She blushed. I glanced up and saw it was 8:15 AM. I counted ten seconds on the clock before my eyes got heavy, and passed out not remembering what came after ten.

...

I woke up, blinking several times. There was a blue curtain draping over my shoulder, and the curtain was extended down to my knee, and below my neck to where I could not see my hand. I could see shadows moving behind the curtain. The cute young nurse that put the drugs in the I.V. poked over the blue curtain and cursed.

"Doc, he's awake." She said keeping eye contact with me.

"Just give him half the dose from earlier. We are nearly done." He said calmly.

She quickly stepped over to me, and did as the doctor had said. My eyes got heavy, but I never quite fell asleep. I felt right on the edge of consciousness, and the time seemed to pass extremely quick.

My eyes snapped open as they begin to pull the curtain down and taking out my I.V. They kept a few of the nodes over my heart and lungs that were monitoring my vitals on. I felt myself coming to.

Doctor H was glancing at his terminal, and stepped over to me when he noticed I was awake. He was smiling broadly.

"Okay, Matthew. Excellent news. Your surgery was a complete success. There were no problems besides you nearly coming awake during the operation. I must say you caught me by surprise with that. Anyways, take a look at your new hand." He pulled away the white cloth that covered it.

I lifted it to inspect it. It was made in a sleek black metal. I could see where it fused into my flesh. It seemed to be a completely straight line that went completely around. I guessed that the artificial nerves and veins were inside of the metalloid fingers and joints, as I saw no obvious signs of them. I tried to curl my hand, and got it to form a weak fist. I used my index finger and thumb of my cybernetic hand to grab the index finger on my right hand, and see how much pressure I could apply. I caused the blood to rush up to the surface of the skin, and grinned.

I looked up at the doctor who had wide eyes.

"Matthew. It takes no less than two weeks for some people to get their new fingers to twitch. You have already surpassed a month of physical therapy in ten minutes. I hate to rush you, but you will be able to grasp a vibrosword in less than a day." He spoke slowly, but I could hear the excitement.

I wondered how much the Force played into adapting to my new hand. I had easily learned to pull my lightsaber to me as a child, and thought this was no different. Just as my lightsaber was a extension of my arm, this was much more a literal extension of it.

I clinched and released my hand in and out a weak fist, rotating my new hand side to side.

"What would a lightsaber do to this hand?" I asked.

"Well the hand itself would probably only be nicked at a lightsaber swing. However, if it slid down to the organic bone or flesh the cybernetics are attached to, the hand would be severed further down, and another replacement would be much more difficult. So, I wouldn't recommend you trying to catch anymore falling rubble or lightsaber blades." He smiled and patted my shoulder.

"I see no reason for you to stay here. You are free to go as soon as we get all these wires off of you. Best of luck to you, Matthew." He said and nodded to one of the male doctors in the room. He returned to his terminal as the male nurse came and stripped all of the nodes off of me, and I stood up to leave.

"Goodbye, Doctor. Thank you so much."

I grabbed my shirt and as I was going to put it on and exiting the room, the cute nurse ran into me. Her light blue eyes stayed on my bare chest for a moment, and then she looked up to me with a red face.

"I am so sorry. Please forgive me, I was just in a hurry and..." her voice was hurried and a bit weary.

"It's fine." I said with a smile and meeting her light colored eyes. "I'm okay. You didn't hurt me. No hard feelings."

She smiled lightly and looked down.

I went to walk out, and she called out quietly, "Hey, Matthew?" She had a question to ask.

"Yes?" I responded.

"What's it like to save the galaxy?" It sounded childish, but was a sincere question.

"It's not as near as fun as you would imagine. And it's pretty hard too. I wish it didn't always need saving." She nodded as she accepted the simple answer. I slipped my shirt over my head and walked back to my the apartment complex.

I walked into the suite feeling kind of tired. I sat on my side of the bed and rubbed my eyes. The door unsealed and I felt Brianna walk in. She was in the pants and shirt of her knight robes. I held up my left hand and grinned.

"Wow. Nice." She said. "How do you feel?"

"Kind of tired actually. I might have to take a nap, even though I hate them." I told her.

She walked over and stood in front of me. I took her left hand with my right and smiled at her. We were looking into each other eyes. Me into her cyan eyes, and her into my dark blue eyes. She leaned down and slightly kissed me, and went to pull away, but I pulled her to me and the light kissed turned into a passionate one.

I pulled her into my lap and she straddled my legs, her hands running through my hair. I rested my hands on her hips. I thought of turning her to the bed and laying her down to live out my desires, but decided to just kiss her. I pulled away, as my urges increased to were I couldn't think straight. I had to keep my mind sharp. I just smiled and said, "Let's leave it at this."

She nodded and smiled back. "Okay." I dropped my hands from her hips and rested them on her thighs.

"I need to lay down for a few minutes. Will you stay here with me?" I asked her. She nodded and climbed around me and into the spot beside me. I laid down and wrapped her up. I passed out quickly.


	5. Chapter 5: Departure

Chapter 5: Departure

I woke up to the terminal against the wall beeping loudly. I looked and saw I had only slept for 30 minutes, which was perfect. I hated feeling like I had wasted a day sleeping. I walked over to the terminal and noticed I didn't have my shirt on. I wondered what time during my nap it had come off. I opened the terminal and saw it was Bastilla.

"I'm sorry to wake you, Matthew. But, Master Jolee has asked to meet you in one of the restored zones of Telos. I will send you the coordinates to your data-pad. The Ithorians have a shuttle already prepped for you, and it will auto-pilot you to the surface." She informed me.

"It's fine, I was going to wake soon anyways. Did Jolee mention what this was about?" I asked wiping some of the sleep from my eyes.

"Only that he wanted to go for a walk and needed you to protect him. Obviously, that is not the case. I sense it is of some importance. You need to go, Matthew." She said with a nod.

"Alright. I'll go. It will only take me a few minutes to get ready." I said. "May the Force be with you, my friend."

She returned the phrase and ended the call. My data-pad lit up across the room on my nightstand, informing me the information from Bastilla had arrived. I looked up and noticed Brianna had just woke up. She stretched, lifting her arms way above her head.

"Wow. I think I could get use to that." She said smiling.

"Naps?" I asked.

"Absolutely. I feel great." She sat up on the edge of the bed, with the covers still over her.

"Well, don't get use to it. I feel we will be far to busy for mid-day naps in the near future." I said beginning to dig for some light travel armor in the dresser. I had a feeling that some of the wild beast on Telos might not appreciate Jolee and I's company.

I settled on some Mandalorian scout armor that Kex had given me for running errands for him back on Dxun. It was heavily personalized and I had grown quite fond of the armor during my travels on the small moon. Jedi robes generally weren't suited for travelling in the wilds. They would easily get caught in thickets, or the creatures would snag them. So, the scout armor was a blessing, and would be quite useful to travel with Jolee.

"Where are you going, Matt?" Brianna asked while watching riffle through the clothing.

"Jolee Bindo has asked me to travel with him on the surface of Telos. I'm not sure what he has in store, but Bastilla feels it important that I go with him. You said that Bastilla is very wise, and I agree. So, I decided to go with him." I said while putting on the armor and tightening the straps and adjusting the hardened leather on my shoulders and chest.

"Okay then." Was all she said.

I just looked at her blankly. It was her who had encouraged me to take Bastilla's advice.

"What, Brianna?" I asked her, sensing her disappointment.

"It's nothing. I just wanted to spend time with you today. Just me and you." She said standing to reveal she too had lost her shirt sometime during our nap, revealing her toned body, and her beautiful curves. My eyes stayed on her and I watched her as she walked into the refresher room, but left the door open.

"I'm sorry, Brianna. I just feel like I need to do this. I'll try to make time tomorrow for you. I promise." I said loud enough for her to hear. Sadly, she did not respond.

I sat down at the edge of my bed and roughly tightened the straps of my light brown combat boots, frustrated that I had upset her. I stood up and stomped to the door, but paused just before opening it. I softened up my angered feelings, and walked into the refresher where Brianna was standing at the mirror tending to some of her short, wild hairs. She noticed me in the mirror and turned around to face me. I walked up to her and hugged her up tightly, my hands feeling the warmth of her bare back.

"I'm sorry I can't always be there for you. I'm afraid things won't change. This is just who I am, what I am supposed to be. I wish I could put you first above everything, but that is not what the Force intended to take place. The galaxy needs me. The Republic needs me." I held her for a moment. She stayed silent with her head on my chest.

"Do what you need to do, Matt. I understand. Trust me, I understand that your duty calls to you." She said.

I held her for just a moment longer, then let go of her. I went and grabbed my data-pad and left the apartment complex and headed towards the docks.

I arrived there, and as Bastilla said, the Ithorians where expecting me. I walked through the airlocks and into the dock. I got on board the shuttle and walked into the cockpit. I turned on the auto-pilot function and fired up all the necessary systems. The shuttle soon lurched up off the platform and out into the open air of Citadel Station.

...

It took only a short time to reach the restoration zone. When I stepped off the ramp, I quickly realized that it was the zone I had originally visited on Telos. However, the grass was much thicker, and the leaves on the few trees in the zone were thicker and broader. The bark on all the trees were a much warmer, darker brown. The bodies of ocean water I could see in the distance were a beautiful blue, much like the waters of Alderaan. It was breathtaking, the progress that had been made in such a short time.

I saw in the distance a land-speeder, that seemed to be occupied by Ithorians, blast by. I was certain they were merely checking up on things, as it seemed there was little left to do in this zone.

I saw a herd of young cannoks rolling around, wrestling, about three or four hundred yards away. I could see a few of the more dominant ones were watching them from a distance. More than likely, they were judging the strength of the young-lings, so they would know who to expect to challenge their authority among the other cannoks, in the years to come. It was strange that the cannoks had the mentality of some predators, in how they would fight for dominance, sometimes to death, and had Alphas to lead them, like a pack of Kath Hounds. It was especially strange that they were not even hunters, but more scavengers than anything, and would settle to eat plants if nothing dead or thrown out by sentients was around.

I turned behind me to look over the cliff edge I had landed close by to. I saw Jolee sitting on the edge with his legs hanging off, kicking them back and forth. He must have noticed the shuttle land and came up behind me to get there, as I had not noticed him when I landed.

"Come here, young Jedi. I want to talk with you." He said in a very calm voice.

I approached him on his right and took in the view. It was just past one o'clock in the evening, so the sun was about four hours from setting, as the nights were long on this side of Telos that time of year. The yellow sun beamed in the crystal clear blue sky. There was not a cloud in the sky, and the weather was warm, but not enough to draw sweat. The wind blew lightly, just enough to disturb some of my short brown hair. I looked over the cliff down into a place I had not noticed before, which was not strange as I had only seen a few square miles of the nearly thirty square mile zone. There was a large plain before the cliff, stretching seemingly to the horizon, just to where the curvature of the planet cut off the eye's vision of the surface. The cliff was only about fifty feet high, but was a drop straight down.

I noticed the wind rushing through the lush, thick grass. It looked like ocean waves of green, with the sunlight blaring off the grass blades in a silver flash when they had bent just enough under the force of the wind to catch the warm rays of the sun, and reflect the light back at my eyes. I saw a few beautiful pink and red flowers standing just above the tall green grass, begging to be admired by the sun. There was no trees in my view, just a beautiful field of grass. It was quite breathtaking, and I began to understand why Jolee had got sidetracked on his way to greet me. I took in a deep breath, smelling the natural aroma of the plants, flowers, and trees around me.

"It's beautiful is it not?" Jolee asked.

I looked down at him, to see his eyes sparkling from the sun.

"It is beautiful." I said, looking back to take in the view.

"This is because of you, Matthew." He said.

"No. This is because of the Ithorians." I responded.

"Listen. If not for you, the Ithorians wouldn't even be planet-side. You eradicated Czerka's efforts, and in turn, drove Czerka from Telos. If not for you, we would not have this view, and nobody after us would have it either. It would be drilled and pumped for all the credits it's worth. Then, when it dried up and died once again, they would leave it as they found it." He said, leaving no room for an argument.

"However, because of you, the Ithorians are once again allowed to breathe life into this planet, and in turn, the Force."

"What do you mean, by the Force? The Ithorians are not Force wielders." I asked

"Young Jedi, the Force touches all life. It flows as the wind through all living things. Sometimes, it clings to people, like you and I. Sometimes, others merely feel it as a warm breath, like the young pilot who pulls off an impossible feat by dipping between two crashing ships, or the worried Dantooine farmer who kills a kinrath with his bare hand as it attacks his young boy."

"Are those feats not accounted for by adrenaline, and other hormones that cause such reactions?" I asked, remembering some people recalling such stories saying that adrenaline could cause such unnatural feats to manifest in people.

"Sit down, boy." He commanded, not answering my question.

I sat down beside him.

"Tell me," He paused and looked over to me, "do you think the Ithorians and you are the only ones responsible for this." He stretched his hand over the cliff out to the rolling grassy fields.

Even though I wanted him to be wrong after thinking shortly on the question I responded, "No."

"It was the Force." He simply stated. "Just as the Force touches the Dantooine farmer, and the pilot, it touches the grass, the trees, this planet. It causes it to excel and grow once again, and to breathe. It causes it to live again. Without the Force, there is very little room for life. It simply affects to much of the galaxy. It is similar to water, or the sun, in it's importance. That is why you are so special. You, Matthew, cut it off, and you lived without it. I don't know if the Force allowed you to live without it, or your sheer force of will carried you though."

I took it in. Kriea had said something similar in her final moments with me, about me cutting off the Force and surviving. Atris had acted as if such a thing was impossible, and even though I would have preferred that to be true, it simply was not.

"So what does this mean? I don't understand." I asked him, hoping for clarification.

He looked at me, "You hold many answers to the questions you ask, young Jedi. You must find them in yourself. I don't understand much of it myself, although some things have been revealed to me. In time, you will be far wiser than me. I sense you are already much more powerful. Find yourself, Matthew, and you will find many answers."

"How do I find myself?" I asked.

"Another question only you know the answer to. However, I believe it will become much clearer when you find Revan. I sense that he is a part of you. You two are connected, like-minded. You need him and he needs you. It is not the connection of a master and a student though, more like a bond between brothers. Find Revan, and in time questions will be answered." He told me.

I looked to the fields once more. I did miss Revan, more than the family I had once been separated from. I was only five when the Jedi came for me. I remembered that Master Kavar had came with two other Jedi to get me. He was only a young man then, and was barely a Knight within the order. My family gladly gave me to the Jedi, I remember sharing many tears with my Mother and Father, but I knew that it was for good, and so did they. I wondered what they were doing. I didn't even remember what planet we had lived on, but it did not matter, as it would take years of scouring it even if I did know. I did not have that kind of time.

I remembered the last time I saw Revan, after the battle on Malachor. I could see the Dark Side in his eyes, the death and pain of millions dragging his shoulders to the ground. He had taken his mask off shortly after the battle.

 _ **Aftermath of The Battle of Malachor V**_

"Come with me, Brother. There is another war to be fought, in the deepest part of the galaxy. Not only is there war, but many, many more victories ahead of us." Revan's voice had been rough and gravely, either from the yelling of the battle, or the Dark Side flowing through him, and it had been coated with a dark nectar, begging me to give into a love of war and battle.

"I cannot, Revan. There is nothing to gain from fighting anymore. We need to return and protect the Republic." I had told him.

"There will be no need to protect the Republic, if we eliminate the threat before it reaches us." He said, his eyes rippling from brown to a dark, burnt orange.

"No. It is not a threat that you will face, but a taint and beckon of the Dark Side. Revan, I beg you to end this here." I had asked him, not wanting to lose him.

"If you will not come, there is no more room for conversation. We are done here." He slipped his mask on and threw his hood over his head and down past his eyes. He whipped around and stormed out of the bridge of his flagship, his dark robe trailing him.

At that point, I had felt the power of the Dark Side rip through me. I wanted so bad to follow him, to fight beside him again. But, something deep inside of me refused to do it, and I severed the force, not knowing if I could fight it any longer.

I remembered hitting my knees and Malak approaching me to lean down and say into my ear, "You indeed are so weak. You cannot accept who you truly are. Not even for Revan. You are a coward and will die one. Sadly, it will not be at my hands." He had never said anything like that to me, and I knew the Dark Side had swallowed him up as well.

He brushed by me, his knee knocked roughly against my shoulder, leaving me in my pain. My mind snapped back to reality.

 _ **On the surface of Telos**_

"It hurts doesn't it, Matthew, knowing he is so far away." Jolee asked.

"It does. I am afraid that the Dark Side will use it against me."

"Blah blah blah. Do not buy into that so easily. Figure those things out on yourself, don't just hear what your old masters had taught you and accept it as the truth. You must find some answers on your own, in your own time." He said

"Now, don't mistake me, Matthew. Your Master's were right on many things, however, the Sith are also correct on many things." He said with a nod.

I nodded back, him having confirmed a thought that had stormed in my mind on many occasions.

"Anyways. Let's go for that walk." He stood up and brushed off the pants of his personalized robes. The were stained quite a bit darker than most Jedi that had served within the order.

I stood up behind him, and then walked side by side with him. We traveled through much of the zone. We did not share many words, besides him babbling every now and then about being old, or pointing out how pretty a certain view, or creature was. It was however, very enjoyable. I felt like I was experiencing something new. On several occasions I reached out, and felt for small ripples in the Force. I was not disappointed, I felt a sort of heart beat within the Force, in flowers, thick patches of grass and many other things. It was hardly noticeable, and even a trained Master would not sense such a thing unless searching for such things.

It opened my eyes to just how large the Force was. It made me feel less important, but at the same time, more powerful.

Jolee broke the silence, "What the Sith fail to understand, Matthew, is that the Force does not serve us. What I believe that the Order does not understand, is that we are not indentured servants to the Force either. There is a middle ground. A gray area, if you will, where both you, and the Force can cooperate together and bring about a balance. The Force does not care if you are wielding a red lightsaber or a blue one. Both sides can use it's power. So which one is right? Are they both right, or both wrong?" He asked while looking around at the field we were walking through, with cliffs on each side.

I knew it was a rhetorical question, so I did not answer. But it did spark more questions in my mind. I reached down while thinking and ran my hands through the waist high grass. I stopped when I saw a beautiful red flower a foot above the grass that surrounded it. I broke it off a few inches below where the petals of the flower had bloomed.

"What's that for?" He asked.

"I want to give it to someone. Brianna." I told him.

"Ah, I see. Your lover." He smiled softly.

"Yes. I do love her." I responded.

"Be careful, young Jedi. Love is a dangerous thing, but not dangerous in the way that the council views it. At least in my experience. It can bring you great joy at many times, or great hurt. You can dictate some of those times, but sometimes, things are out of your control." He said beginning to walk again.

I noticed the sun was setting on the horizon, and he had turned back to the direction of the shuttle. Being out past night in untamed and unknown lands was never a good idea on any planet. We arrived at the shuttle in a half hour.

He turned to me as I was going to step up onto my shuttle, and I caught a glimpse of his shuttle about 50 yards away, the nose of it peaking out from behind a rock-face. "I know that you should not be rushed, but you need to hurry and began your journey. This could possibly be more important than your last adventure."

"I actually planned on leaving in a week, but I am recovering so fast that I will leave the day after tomorrow in the morning. I'm ready, and Revan needs me." I told him.

"Excellent. Thank you for listening to a crazy old man. Don't believe a word I say though. I'm not a very stable person after all. I just like to talk a lot without thinking. Spent to much time alone on Kashyyyk in the Shadowlands." He said, obviously mocking my previous joke about him that I had made to Bastilla not thinking he could hear me, and reacquiring his normal personality of old hermit rather than wise old Jedi.

I just grinned and turned to walk up the ramp while I said, "Thank you, Jolee."

I sealed it and fired up the shuttle. I waited to see Jolee board his shuttle, as I could see his loading ramp from my cockpit, and then fired up the engines and reactivated the auto-pilot. I had spent several hours on the surface, but it felt like only minutes, and I quickly made it back to the docks.

...

" _Matthew? Are you back?_ " Bastilla asked me. " _Or am I talking to nothing again?_ "

" _No, I'm here. I'm still aboard the shuttle the Ithorians loaned me actually, but I should be there soon. Give me one moment."_ I told her. I was pleased with her progress, as talking from that distance was no small feat, as the docks where a near ten minute shuttle ride from the residential module, a near three mile distance.

I quickly shut of the shuttle's engine and main computer and left the docks. I then boarded the transport and headed to the apartments.

I walked into the complex and was completely exhausted. I felt around for my companions. Everyone was there, besides HK and Mandalore, and I could only tell HK was gone because I could not hear his power core. Most of the time, when looking for droids, to notice them you would have to notice the changes in power in the surroundings, or simply listen for them, as they were not sentient and therefore you could not feel the Force in them.

I noticed Visas was extremely weak. Almost dead. I quickly rushed to the door and banged on it three times very hard.

"Visas! Open up I need to speak to you." I said loud enough for her to hear through the door.

The magnetic locks unsealed and she stood only a few feet from me. I looked her over. She looked like death. I stepped in her dark room and turned on the lights and resealed the door.

Her cheeks bones were sunken. Her once full red lips were chapped and cracking, with a pinkish color that signified the lack of nutrients in her body. Her tight black robes revealed the ribs showing on her, something very uncharacteristic. Her arms were thin, the robes hanging on to her by hardly anything. I grabbed her arm and rolled the sleeve back to reveal her once soft, white complexion was near transparent, and her veins bulged out in a baby blue color.

"Visas, how many days has it been since you ate?" I asked, shaking my head.

"Today." Her voice came out weak.

"Do not lie to me. Do not lie to me, Visas. This is not the time." I said, stern.

"I'm not lying, Matthew. I ate today." She coughed weakly into her hand.

I searched her face, and she revealed no signs of lying.

"Why do you look like this? What happened to you?"

"I have been strengthening you, Matthew. I sped up your recovery so you could leave sooner." She said, seemingly already breathless.

"What do you mean?"

"My master fed off of me, sating his hunger for power until the next mass murder. Sometimes, he threatened me with my life. I taught myself how to give some of my life force away, to keep him away. This also works on you as well. I don't know why, but there is a similarity between you and him. I know not of anyone else that it has worked on. I know Sith are capable of draining an opponent, but not of restoring them."

"Why not just use Force heal, and not kill yourself in the process of strengthening me."

"It is not the same. I am giving my life to you." She said solemnly.

"What you are doing is not of the Jedi. That is a dark practice, dark sorcery maybe. This needs to stop. Now." I commanded her.

"So be it." She said.

It was strange, as I immediately felt a soreness return to my body, there was no immediate change in her though, which worried me. She was near death.

"You need to rest." I told her.

Her knees buckled and she fell towards me. I caught her and scooped her up, walking her towards the single bed on the right side of the room. I gently laid her down, and walked to get her a small glass of water, and sat it on the counter beside her bed. I grabbed her a small snack and sat it beside the glass of water.

I leaned her head up, and made her take a small drink of the water.

"Thank you." She whispered and rolled away from me.

I pulled the blanket over her. I placed my hand on her head and reached out, searching her. Her heart was very weak, but she was not nearing cardiac arrest, and her mind was steady and calm. Her Force aura was very weak. I was sure the dark practice she had used had drained her of the Force as well.

I briskly walked out of the room and into Atton's and Mira's room. They were sitting on the couch and talking quietly back and forth with each other.

Mira looked at me when I walked in and noticed my concern. "What's up, Matthew?" She asked.

"Visas is," I paused for a moment, "very sick. I need you to make sure that she is eating and drinking right for a while. And since you are growing in the Force, if you sense a darkness in her, help her." I knew asking her to 'help her' was vague, but she would understand.

"Of course, Matthew. What is she sick from?"

"She used a very dark magic to help me recover. It was not even of Sith origin, but of the very Dark Side itself is where it's roots lay. Just watch her for me. I am leaving very soon, or I would do this myself." I told her.

"No problem. I guess I'll watch her and make sure she doesn't go over the edge." She said.

I nodded and walked back to my room. It was half past ten and I was tired.

Brianna called to me from the refresher room. "Matthew, is that you?"

I poked my head into the door to respond. "Yes, I just got back. Can you hurry please. I smell like dirt and sweat."

"Yea, I'll be out in a second."

I closed the door and took a few steps down the hallway to the opening of the room, and sat on the edge of the bed to begin undoing the straps on my boots and armor. Brianna exited the shower dressed in a comfortable shirt and loose baggy pants, just as I took the torso of my armor off. I walked into the shower room, handing her the flower I had picked from the surface as I passed her, and shut the door behind me before quickly cleaning up. I put on the bottoms of my gray Jedi robes and hurried to the bed. She had set the flower in a small cup of water next to the bed.

"What was all that noise about in, Visas' room earlier?" Brianna asked as I climbed into the bed and scooted close to her.

"I'll tell you all about today in the morning, including that." I told her, as my eyes drifted shut.

...

I woke up to Brianna rolling to face me. "Good, you're up. Tell me about yesterday."

I told her everything, trying not to spare any details about the day. She just quietly listened as I told her all about the previous day.

"Wow. Eventful. Let's go spar." She said nonchalantly while rolling out of the bed.

"Any reason why you want to?" I asked while standing up and stretching.

"I assume you're leaving soon? You will need your reflexes about you if you want to come back to me." She said while putting on the Mandalorian jumper. I cut my eyes to avoid staring and dug through the drawer to find mine and quickly dressed.

We looked at the map on the data-pad and settled on an old unused ball room to use to spar. I grabbed the bag full of weapons that Green had cleared us to keep on the station. A few simple sparring long blades and vibroswords, two weighted wooden extendable staffs, and a few republic blasters. I was sure that we would use everything but the blasters.

We made small talk about the future of the Republic and what significant figures would come to power, and who would disappear in the shadows.

"I'm sure if Atris is challenged by Bastila she will run and hide, as she always has, in her now lonely academy on Telos. She does not have the strength to lead open-minded people. I have a feeling many old members of the Order will not let her stay on Coruscant once they find out about her collection of Sith artifacts." Brianna told me as we walked into the large open room.

We sparred several warm-up matches of grappling, then fought hand-to-hand. Then we switched to swords, then staffs, and then dual swords. We then fought several matches mixing up the weapons and styles we were using, covering almost everything but Jedi styles. Finally, we ended with a few hand-to-hand matches.

...

I brushed myself off and stood up from the swift kick Brianna had landed into the lower part of my stomach before deeming herself the victor of the match. She walked over to the wall and plopped down. Taking a small drink of her water.

I walked over to her, catching my breath and sat down beside her while outstretching my hand for the water.

"I'm wore out." She said while brushing some loose hair from her face.

"I'm sure beating me up is such hard work." I said jokingly, even though it did worry me. It showed how much Malachor had effected me, as I had beat her several times in a row before Malachor. I was still stiff and aching, and could tell the difference now that Visas wasn't killing herself for me.

"It is. You are quite tough. Don't know when to quit." She said cracking a smile.

I looked down at my data-pad and noticed it was nearly five in the afternoon. I was leaving in less than a day. And I had neglected to tell Brianna.

"Brianna, I need to tell you something."

She looked over to me.

"I forgot to tell you something this morning. I'm leaving tomorrow morning." I said, waiting for her to be upset.

"I sensed the urgency on you. I knew you were leaving soon. I expected a few more days though." She informed me, looking down at her feet.

"I'm sorry, Brianna. I decided only yesterday to leave so soon. I forgot to tell you this morning."

"It's okay. I just wish we had more time together." She said while standing. "Come on. Let's go eat and then we can begin preparing for your departure."

I followed her to the small cafe nearby, and we were served the house specialty for free when they realized who we were and they brought our food quickly. We ate and thanked the staff, then boarded the shuttle back to the apartments.

We silently packed many of my things as we arrived there. I was honestly scared of the future, and wasn't sure if I would see her again after tomorrow morning. I knew that if Revan and I failed, that things would be very dark for the Republic in days and years to come. Not only that, but I didn't want Brianna to be alone, or be with anyone else but me.

We finished packing around a ten and began to get ready for bed. I heard the lobby door open and saw Bao-Dur walk in, dirty and greasy. He noticed me looking at him.

"Ah, General. I'm glad I caught you. I just wanted to tell you that everything is good and ready to go on the Hawk. I caught wind today from Bastilla when she checked on the progress of the ship that you told Jolee you were leaving today." He told me.

"Yes, me and Jolee decided that the sooner I left, the better. Revan is getting very weak and needs help." I told him.

"I see." He said quietly. "I wish you would take some of us with you. You can't save the galaxy on your own." He said while walking to his room.

It was very strange, as he had never second guessed me in such a way. It really made me think. Am I doing the right thing? I felt it was, but I couldn't make myself sure. Something that had got me through so many issues was I was always so sure of myself, always completely confident in what I was doing.

I felt for Visas. Her life felt steady and strong, and her Force aura was strengthening. At least there was some good news.

I felt for Mira and Atton. Oh god. I quickly shut myself off and snapped back to myself. I did not need to know that.

"What's wrong, Matt? You look like you just saw a ghost." Brianna said, concerned.

"Oh, nothing, just feel a bit queasy from the cafe food."

"Hey, Matt. You're a bad liar."

She went and sat on the bed with a smile on her face and undid her shoes. I was honestly pretty tired and was ready for bed.

I sat down and unstrapped my boots then untied the thin laces before taking them off. I took off my shirt and sat on the edge of the bed rubbing my eyes.

"Matthew." Brianna said softly.

"Yes?"

"You're coming back to me right?" She asked quietly.

"Of course, Brianna." I told her with as much confidence in my voice that I could muster.

"Do you promise?"

"Yes. I promise." I turned around and saw her looking at me.

I lost myself in her crystal clear, cyan eyes. I leaned in to softly kiss her goodnight, but she turned it into something far more passionate. I reached my hand around her back and pulled her up tight to me, feeling myself get warmer. I pulled back, just to look in her eyes. I was ready, and she was too. I laid her down on the bed and we lived out our desires for each other.

...

I woke up to my alarm beeping, with Brianna's warm bare body pressed against mine. I pushed the hair from my forehead and smiled. I gently pushed her hand off my chest and untangled her legs from mine, though I didn't necessarily want to. I stood up and hurried to the refresher to brush my teeth and pack the last of my things.

I looked at myself in the mirror. I noticed I had not shaved in a few days, and my beard was beginning to get very thick. I liked it. My hair grew back slow, so it was still neat, but a little long. It would have to wait until I returned. My data-pad lit up, and I saw there was an astrological map flashing on the screen. I saw that it was sent by T3. Sadly, I had no idea what it meant, as much of it seemed to be coded in some form of binary. Bao-Dur had once showed me a binary code that many advanced droids used to function. This looked similar, but held many differences to the point where I could not understand it at all.

I got dressed in my gray robes and got all my luggage in one area by the door.

I looked up and saw Brianna wrapped in the blanket watching me. I walked over to her and kissed her lightly on the forehead.

"I'll be back. I promise. I'll come back to you."

She only nodded. I saw the wet tears enter her eyes. Thankfully they did not roll down her face, as leaving her was hard enough.

I walked out the door, my heart pounding more with each step, and resealed the door, leaving Brianna by herself in the room. Visas' door opened, and she leaned against the doorway, still weak.

"Thank you, Matthew. You have taught me much, and have saved my life once more. Thank you."

"You're welcome, Visas. I will see you again soon."

She resealed the door, and I sensed a great peace on her. Her aura was strong and light.

Bao-Dur looked up from his bench, his remote drifting over his shoulder. "Be careful, General"

I nodded to him. He didn't need to say anything else. We understood each other.

Mira and Atton walked out of their room holding hands and looking at each other.

"Hey, Matt. Come back with *both* feet. And Revan." He said smiling broadly.

"I'll do my best, Atton." I said smiling.

"Yeah, Matt. Don't do anything I wouldn't do. You know what. Don't listen to that. Just be careful." She said.

"Okay, Mira. I'll do my best to be safe."

"And, Matt. Don't worry about things here. We are all going to help out. We have it all under control. Bastilla has talked to all of us. We are ready to rebuild the Order and strengthen the Republic. If the Sith arrive, we will be ready." Atton told me.

I walked to the complex door, ready to leave, but turned to tell Atton, "Hey Atton. Watch Brianna for me. Make sure she's okay."

He nodded, and gave me a thumbs up. I walked out the door and towards the docks and the Ebon Hawk.

I boarded it and heard T3 beep loudly in the cockpit. I noticed how nice and clean things were. As I walked down the hallway to the cockpit, I noted the small door leading to the personal quarters across from the security room. I opened the door and threw the load of bags I had onto the floor in front of the bed that was about six feet in front of the door. The length of the full-sized bed took up the width of the small room. There was a large footlocker on one side of the wall and a desk on the other.

I walked into the Cockpit and sat at the Pilot's chair. I was not the pilot Atton was, or Carth for that matter, but I could reach our destination safely. I ignited the engine and began warming up the hyper-drive. I sat Revan's mask on the Navicomputer, and faced it towards me. I turned on all the necessary systems, and double-checked the status of the ship. As I expected, everything was more than ready to go, thanks to Bao-Dur's tedious work with his skilled crew.

I looked over to the small droid hooked up to the jack in the central computer of the Ebon Hawk.

"Okay, T3. Where are we going?"


	6. Chapter 6: Genesis

Chapter 6: Genesis

My eyes stared into the emptiness of Hyperspace. It was a strange feeling, trying to comprehend how fast the Ebon Hawk was actually travelling. Knowing I was blasting by planets and moons faster than light had kept my mind busy for some time, but the boredom was once again setting in. For most of the five days I had been in hyperspace, I had bode the time by meditating, exercising, tearing apart and rebuilding my lightsaber several times a day, or running pointless maintenance checks. Bao-Dur had done everything perfectly, and there would not need to be a worry about the running of the Ebon Hawk for some time.

I glanced over to the faithful T3 unit sitting surprisingly quiet behind me tucked into the corner of the cockpit. His usual back and forth moving through the ship had stopped, as it was now pointless with all things being fixed properly. However, the droid did not become uneasy and bored as I did, so therefore I took his place.

The Ebon Hawk was lonely. It was the quietest I had ever remembered my surroundings being. Even when I was a child in the academy on Dantooine, in late hours of the night you could hear padawans and masters alike roaming around or rustling through the halls. Now there was only the occasional beep from the many computers in the Ebon Hawk, or a slight drum from the Hyperspace drive.

I looked over at T3, "How much further, big guy?" I asked him.

He beeped a few times speaking a language that only a small portion of people in the Republic could actually understand.

"Yes, I know this is the fourth time I've asked today but I'm in a hurry." I responded, a bit hurt.

He beep a few more times.

"Only three hours? Well that's something to look forward to. Do you have anything in your database about this planet? Anything you can tell me anyways."

He let out a long "Droooo" sound.

"Extremely dangerous, huh? What are few the places I traveled that are not dangerous?" I asked him jokingly.

I looked at the clock and noticed that it would be around eleven in the morning for Galactic standard time, but as I had no clue what planet I was going to didn't even know if it would be daylight. I was not sure of the rotation, atmosphere, native creatures, or climate, which were usually very important things to know.

"Is it cold there, T3? Or hot?"

He remained silent but begin rocking back and forth nervously.

"Okay, T3. I'll cut the interrogation. I'm going to get some rest. Wake me when we are close."

I rubbed my eyes and walked back to the pilot quarters and plopped on the bed and began nodding off quickly, my wondering mind ready to shut down.

...

My eyes snapped open as I heard T3 beeping a few times in the hall.

"Okay!" I called. "Be there in a second." I rubbed my eyes and let them adjust to my darkened surroundings.

My heart sank as I noticed a large, nearly eight foot tall figure slightly hunched over in the corner. I could not feel any life from it, which made me feel nauseous. I tried reaching into it's mind. It took clumsy step forward and I jumped a bit, startled at the sudden movement.

"Statement: Master, you seem a bit on edge today. Not getting soft as so many of you meatbags do in old age, are you?"

My shoulders slumped in relief. "HK, what in the name of the Force are you doing here?" I asked the droid, frustrated in how the huge assassin droid had managed to sneak on board.

"Statement: Master I am an *assassin* droid. A highly programmed silent killer. With more of my protocols and memories being opened thanks to you and Bao-Dur, I am now a much more capable *silent* killer. Sneaking past oblivious sentients is easy. Especially the soft, flabby Ithorians." He said, his eyes pulsing red.

"Well then, that's useful information I guess. And no, HK, I am not getting 'soft'. You snuck up on me in my sleep. Things that do that are usually trying to kill me." I told him.

His eyes pulsed at the word, 'kill'. Not surprising. But he said nothing else.

"Oh well. I just hope you don't get turned into scrap metal on the planet. I'm not so sure you are supposed to be here." I said getting up and moving past him.

"Statement: Master, based on previous things I have survived, that is very unlikely." He said.

I just left his words hanging in the air, because I wanted to believe them. If he survived, then I had a better chance to survive. We had all been through crazy things, and in reality should not be alive. But no matter how dangerous or difficult, I needed to get back home to Brianna.

When I walked into the cockpit T3 let out a few short beeps, indicating how close we were. I leaned over the navigators chair and glanced at the computer, we had only five minutes until we were in viewing distance of the planet, where we slow down enough to safely enter the planets atmosphere. Hopefully storms that could endanger the ship did not shroud the planet. I was not a very good pilot, and if anything drastic took place, we could very easily be stranded on this strange outer rim planet.

The hyper-drive began quieting down, signifying it slowing down. If it stopped instantly coming out of such speeds, the Ebon Hawk would be depressurized within a quarter of a nanosecond, leaving the ship the size of a small lightsaber crystal. So, it was a good sign that the sound was dying down smoothly, with no hiccups. I counted to ten before a large planet seemed to materialize in front of me. The sun was shining on the side of the planet we would land on.

I could see dense foliage covering the planet. From this distance I could not tell exactly what it was, but it seemed like dense jungle covered most of the planet. My heart sunk as I noticed several steel-colored dots on much of the planets surface. I noticed what was for sure large bodies of water, undoubtedly oceans. This place was either currently heavily populated, or had been in the past. It would be easy to tell if it was still populated if the side of the planet was covered in darkness, as enough light, or the lack of light thereof, would be enough to determine the population I noticed one dot that was nearly three times the size of what seemed to be other settlements and cities.

"T3, do you see any landing pads a mile or two away from that large sentient-built obstruction." I asked not knowing how lucky we could get. I definitely did not want to land in the city, as I could feel the Darkside strong on the planet.

He left out a few beeps and informed me of a jungle clearing that would be easy to land in. I put the coordinates in and the Ebon Hawk shifted slightly in the direction of the clearing.

As we neared the opening, I turned off all unnecessary systems, that way, if there were any sentients still on the planet, they would have to be searching for ships to be entering the planet, and have extremely advanced systems, similar to that of the Mandalorians surveillance equipment on Dxun and the Republic's space stations in order to detect the small smuggling ship.

We closed in on the large clearing, and I found out that the thick foliage covering the planet was in fact large trees and dense jungles. I'm sure that many parts of the planet had different climates, but all I had seen was jungles. I was worried of what creatures the planet held that were hiding under the thick canopy of trees.

I went to the cockpit and took a glance out the front window, taking in the dense jungles and tall trees.

"Well, T3. No sense in waiting around anymore. Lets travel to that large settlement and see what lies in store for us. HK, you too."

I let down the loading ramp and walked down it with my two companions in tow.

I took in a deep breath of the thick air. The atmosphere was dense, but thanks to the trees had more than enough oxygen to keep me alive without a respirator or atmospheric suit.

"Amused Statement: Well, Master, it appears that the air is not poisonous to you humans. Disappointing."

I glanced over at the tall droid glancing into the treeline.

"I sense much life on this planet. We should be cautious. I feel as if many of the creatures on this planet could easily kill us if we get caught off guard. Move with caution." I told them while approaching the close treeline

We began moving slowly through the thick trees and brush of the planets jungle. T3 seemed to be having trouble navigating through the brush and around the hanging limbs.

"T3, why don't you head back to the ship? Make sure no one spots it or tries to take it. We have no idea what kind of creatures inhabit this planet, and we don't know their intentions." I told him.

He let out a few defiant beeps, but I stared at him sternly until he turned around and headed back to the ship.

Me and HK continued towards the large structure. I began to feel uneasy, as I could sense the Dark Side welling up around me, as I had felt it on Korriban. I felt that a very ancient and primal source of power resided here. It felt similar to the aura of power that Darth Nihilus had been shrouded in, but much more focused, and not as desperate.

I wondered what power I could be feeling. The only thing that had saved me from the power of Nihilus, was the wound in the force within me, when he had tried to feed off of me, it was not my willpower that saved me, but that there was basically nothing within me to feed off of, I was empty, hollow. Once I began to resist him, he lashed out in fear, with sloppy, wide attacks.

I felt that the powerful being I was beginning to feel more and more would be very calculated and methodical, especially if they had the power of ancients like Naga Sadow, or Ajunta Pall.

But all that was merely speculation, I had no idea what was in store, and only had to guess based off what I was feeling.

I let the thought trail off and began walking briskly through the dense jungle once more. I took a few steps and heard a deep, low resonating growl. Whatever had made the noise was very large, and extremely close.

Suddenly, to my right a large thirteen foot tall bipedal creature charged through three large trees, batting them down like weeds. It threw its head back and lifted it's eyes to the sky and released a long, ear-piercing roar. The veins in it's neck and limbs throbbed as the adrenaline of the approaching battle flowed through the battle-hardened creature. It was covered in several, long scars that you could see through it's patches of thick brown fur all over it's body. I noticed it had an extra set of smaller arms, sticking out of it's rib cage.

I gripped my lightsaber, my hands shaking in fear and a cold sweat breaking free of my skin and running down my cheek. I became weak in my knees, looking at one of the most fearsome creature I had ever seen. When I figured the creature only needed two quick strides to reach me, I felt sick. Only the Force could save me now.

HK gripped his blaster almost nervously, but droids were not capable of feeling such emotions.

"Statement: Master, this appears to be a Gun..." HK could not finish his sentence before the creature barreled toward him and hit him with a back hand from the depths of Malachor.

HK disappeared into the dense jungle brush while still in flight from the force of the blow.

The creature snapped it's head in my direction, his eyes the color of a Sith Lord's blade. I blinked and it had covered half of the ten yards that had been between us. I jumped into the air as fast as my body allowed and angled my self for a front-flip directly over his head. When I was directly over the top of it, I swept my saber in a vicious attack, using my momentum to add to the power behind it. I connected cleanly.

When I landed I figured the creature would drop from my impeccably placed strike to the center of it's head. I turned to watch it, standing up as it slowed to a standstill. It stood up straight and turned around to face me, it's head charred and smoking in a line from the center of it's two eyes, to the top of it's spike-covered skull.

It snarled and began running at me on all fours, screaming and roaring in a fit of rage that I had not witnessed before in all of the galaxy. I shivered in fear as I tried to will my legs, weak with fear, to listen to the command of rolling out of the way. I tried to roll at the right time, but more or less just jumped to the side and landed awkwardly, trying to scramble out of the way and into the jungle.

I narrowly messed the creature, who was far to fast for it's size. I ran through the jungle, slashing at the brush and trees in front of me, and feeling like my feet were lifting off the ground I was running so fast, using the force to speed me up even more. However still, I could hear the creature gaining on me with an unnatural speed. It roared behind me, and knocked over trees. I could hear the roots being ripped from the ground and the trunks being split in half.

I made a split second decision to turn around and face the creature. I would not die running.

I whipped around and planted my feet, and suddenly, the creature came into view, charging through vines and bushes, it's eyes wild with an untamed fury. Even when it noticed I had stopped running it did not slow at all. It leapt into the air towards me from twenty yards, reaching out with it's front two arms grabbing for me, I ran and slid underneath it, slashing down the center of it's abdomen.

It roared in pain, and when it hit the ground, kicked it's feet wildly while clutching it's abdomen and rolling around. I charged to take advantage of the wounded creature. I jumped high into the sky and brought my lightsaber down fiercely, aiming for it's neck.

At the last moment it reached up and batted me away, with it's long muscular arm. I hit a tree five yards from the creature. My right arm got caught between my body and the tree and I heard a unnerving popping sound in my shoulder. I had no doubt broken my clavicle. My eyes watered as I forced myself to stand and continue fighting, as the creature was wobbly standing.

I could see the muscle and flesh hanging from the wound. Somehow, I still had not slashed the creature hard enough to reach it's organs. It's hide was hard enough it could be used on Republic Freighters.

It began slowly walking towards me, holding it's stomach tightly with one of its short hands. I weakly slashed at it's chest with my left cybernetic hand, my head feeling light. I hit, but only grazed it. It did not flinch. It hit my left hand, and if felt like it almost dislocated my shoulder, then it firmly picked me up by the neck and slammed me against the tree, knocking the air of out of my body with a loud huff. It brought it's eyes to mine and opened it's mouth wide, it's tusk on both sides of my face. I thought of what a horrible way I was about to die, my skull crushed by the jaw of a creature I didn't even know the name of.

Suddenly it's head snapped sideways, and it's eyes rolled backwards. We both fell to the ground with a thud, me landing on top of the nearly two thousand pound creature. I felt it's body quivering as the last bit of blood and adrenaline was carried through it's body by it's slowing heart rate.

I looked at it's head and saw it smoking out of it's ear. Someone had shot it in the ear to kill it. A perfect shot.

"Statement: Master, that is a Gundark. A bull Gundark. A very tough meatbag." HK said while dragging a mangled leg behind him with one arm, the other holding his Heavy Repeating Blaster.

Stars still clouded my vision, so I just laid there trying to catch my breath. I could feel my self slipping though, the shock from my injuries and pain getting the best of me even though I was fighting to stay awake.

As my vision faded to black I saw a black-cloaked figure in a red and gray Mandalorian mask step from the shadows of the jungle.

"Query: Master?" I heard HK ask as I slipped into unconsciousness


	7. Chapter 7: Revanchists

Chapter 7: Revanchists

My eyes tried to adjust to my darkened surroundings as my consciousness returned to me. I quickly recognized my surroundings and shot up straightly in the bed, my shoulder burning.

I was once again in the med bay of the Ebon Hawk.

I heard swift steps approaching the room from down the hallway. Revan crested the doorway and came into view, his mask off and his hood down. He looked like Onderon royalty, with his long dark brown hair and dark brown eyes, angular jawline, and his upright posture. He had grown a thick beard since I had last seen him, and his hair no longer hung just above his shoulders, but now rested on them. I assumed grooming regularly was not one of his concerns out here so far from the Republic.

"Thank you for returning my mask to me. I actually was beginning to miss this." He said, breaking the silence and holding the mask up to view it.

"Revan?" I said, a bit stunned to have found him so soon.

"Yes, Matthew. It is me. I didn't figure it had been so long since you've seen me that you would have forgotten my name." He said with a smile, looking up to me. I noticed it looked like he had aged two decades since I had last seen him. I thought for a moment and quickly remembered it had actually been close to seven years since we had last seen each other.

"Nobody in the entire Republic has forgotten you. You have been greatly missed. Not only missed, but needed." I said, thinking of how much he could have helped me in dismantling Darth Traya's evil plot.

"It seems that everything has been taken care of properly. I trust you did your best, and your best was more than enough. I know not of what all has happened, but did sense a great evil welling up in the Force. Sadly, the evil on this planet, is much more serious and powerful." He looked down at the ground, shaking his head and rubbing his eyes softly. I thought of what evil lurked on this planet, that even when Revan sensed Traya and her schemes, he decided staying would be better for the Republic.

"How did you find that?" I asked, pointing to the mask.

"I saw the Ebon Hawk come in from orbit. It was the Force alone that had me wondering on this part of the planet. So I came and checked it out. T3 let me aboard. I like the improvements." He said with a nod, "They are nice. I found the mask in the cockpit, right on top of the Navicomputer." He explained.

"What have you been doing this whole time, Revan? What all have you seen?" I asked him curious at how he had spent so much time secluded and with no contact with any others in the Republic.

"I believe, my old friend, that I could ask you the same question." His intense eyes burning with the same passion they always had. Despite all of his hardships and battles, he had remained almost the same as when he was a young padawan.

Besides when he was influenced by the Dark Side, he had always been consistent, but at the same time pulled in many directions. He could always be found seeking knowledge from the Force, or trying to defend his loved ones or the Republic with a fiery passion. I wondered if the same could be said for me, or if I was a completely different person, my personality and demeanor heavily influenced by my trials.

Was I still the young Jedi with an open heart and mind, with a intense care for others and the good of the galaxy, or was I becoming a more selfish version of myself? Would I do what it took to save the Republic or the Galaxy if it meant sacrificing a part of myself of my friends? Only time would answer the question.

"Well, Revan, it's a long story. It started when I found myself sitting outside the building that the Jedi had just exiled me from, thinking of what I was going to do next..." I told him the entire story, of the time directly after my trial and exile, all the way to leaving Brianna and Telos behind to find him. I spared him no details, not even from the short amount of time that I had become addicted to Juma Juice and Twi'lek women. Not even Atton or Bao-Dur knew of that. I told him the story for almost two hours, while he just sat quietly and listened, absorbing all the information.

"Interesting, my friend. I am glad that you did not lose sight of yourself, and found your purpose. I believe Twi'lek woman can be a weakness for any young man." Revan said smiling and standing up from the edge of the Med-bay bed where he had been sitting beside me.

"Now it is your turn to tell me what you have been doing." I told him, smirking.

He told me everything, and some of the things he told me completely caught me off guard. He told me of the Sith Emperor, Lord Vitiate, that was reining over this planet, and how he had twisted his mind and caused him to start the Jedi Civil War after the war with the Mandalorians. He told me of the monstrosities he had committed with his clouded judgement, and how he convinced himself that they were for the good of the Republic. He told me of losing his memories and regaining them, all the while he was falling deeply in love with the passionate Bastilla.

He told me of being lost on a planet older than the Republic, with a far richer history of power and dominance to accompany the now stagnant, and weak species, known now as the Rakata. He mentioned he thought that all of their potential had been wasted by their ignorant ancestors but did not explain why he felt that way. He told me of destroying the Star Forge, the piece of Ancient technology that the Rakata had spent all of their resources building, that in turn weakened them enough to where they lost their rule over most of the galaxy.

He also told me of slaying our friend, our brother, Malak, while on the Star Forge. I could still hear the pain in his voice. It was often hard to see an old friend fall, but to see them fall so hard they could not hear reason, and then to have to slay them to in turn save your own life, and the Galaxy brought much pain. A pain I knew all to well.

"And that's it. Every since then I have been here, acting as an insurgent and trying to impede the Emperor in as many ways as I can. The Force has shown me that anyway I approach him is sure defeat. So, I have done other things, blowing up armored vehicles, slaying Sith Lords under his command in their sleep, or killing their government officials. Anything I can get away with without attracting his direct attention, I have done. But, I have not been able to do enough. All of his most trusted officials, and those seated on the Dark Council that advise him stay very close to him, so I have not been able to eliminate anyone of real importance. I feel like several times, he has been right on the edge of just coming after me in the jungle, but for some reason he has decided against it. He is a very powerful man, and even his thoughts cause ripples in the Force, and I know he can feel me. He knows who I am too. He remembers when Malak and I approached him years ago seeking power." Revan said, finishing his story.

"So you haven't seen him since you have been here for the past five years?" I asked him.

"No. I avoid him intentionally. This is the closest I have been to him in nearly six months, and I can feel his power from here. I'm sure you felt him as soon as you landed." He informed me.

"How long do you plan to continue to do this?" I asked him.

"Until his reign is ended. I will need your help, even though your shoulder is injured. Thankfully you did not break it. I thought you did when I heard it pop when you hit that tree. However, you just dislocated it. It will still take time to heal though." He said, causing me some relief. Another severe injury was the last thing I needed.

"So what is the end goal, what is the point to fighting him, Revan?" I asked.

"There is harmony in all things, and there should always be a balance in the Force. I believe he is far to powerful in the Dark Side, and unbalances the flow of life. We have been sent here, by the Force, to return that balance, either by killing him, or becoming powerful enough to defend the Republic." He told me, looking into my eyes.

I wasn't sure if what he said was true, but how sure he was of it made me want to believe him.

"But, I have an idea." He said, mischief in his eyes.

"Oh, no." I said, worried about the look he had on his face.

"There is a powerful Sith currently residing in the city that you saw when coming in to land. He his a true Sith, not the people who follow their ideals, but one who has the blood of the old Sith in him. He is one of the Emperor's most trusted and powerful Lord's. He is known by the name of Lord Scourge. I've been weary of approaching him directly due to his prestige and power among the Sith, but with you, I feel like the odds have been evened out." He told me.

"What do you plan to do once we meet him?" I asked.

"I want to ask for his help in eliminating the Emperor." He told me plainly.

I stared at him, confused.

"You want to ask him to help us kill his Emperor?" I asked, hoping for a different response.

"Yes." He answered flatly.

"Why do you believe this will work, Revan?"

"Well, all the Sith want is more power, or at least to be the most powerful Force user. Lord Scourge knows the Emperor is more powerful than him, and that is something we can exploit. A weak point in him. I have followed this Sith on many occasions, and although he is fiercely loyal to the Emperor, he is still a selfish man, and is just waiting for the right opportunity to promote himself, as all Sith do. It is their way, to kill their master and take his place. But you know this." He told me.

He was not wrong. It was the way of the Sith to use any means necessary to overthrow their masters. Just as Malak fired on Revan's flagship when the Jedi boarded him in order to take his role as Dark Lord. It did not matter if it was a fair fight or not, he was still considered to be Dark Lord. The same could be said for Lord Scourge in using our help to kill the Emperor. Although the end goal was not to let him assume the title of Emperor, we could still use his help in defeating the Emperor and handle Lord Scourge ourselves at a later time.

"Lord Scourge is still to powerful and evil to let him rule the Sith, but, he would be much easier to kill ourselves, rather than the Emperor who is in power now." He told me, confirming the thought that was currently in my head. "But you must realize, Matt, there is no easy way to do this, and nothing we are about to do is guaranteed." He told me.

"But, there is something else you should know about Lord Scourge. He was originally brought to this planet in regards to a plot by the Dark Council to help them assassinate the Emperor, but for some reason the plot has not been acted upon yet. A woman on the council known as Darth Nyriss is responsible for bringing Lord Scourge here. She is a Sith pure-blood as well. We need to find her first, and find out why they have not acted on their intentions yet. The Emperor usually resides in this city, but is gone. I know not why he is gone, or for how long he will be gone, but we need to find Darth Nyriss and Lord Scourge before he returns, or we may not have any chance at all in defeating him." He told me, urgency in his voice.

I stood up, and looked him in the eyes, "Well, let's get going." I said with a smile.

We walked down the ramp, leaving T3 and HK behind and in standby mode. HK would have to wait until we got back to the Republic to get much needed repairs.

My shoulder was stiff and sore, but I felt like it would not hinder me any if I needed to defend myself. I sensed Revan had healed me using the Force while I was unconscious.

We walked by the area where the Gundark had chased me through the jungles, and I could see a path of nearly fifty yards where he had uprooted trees and stomped down brush.

"The Gundark's are not Native to Dromand Kaas. The Sith brought them here in order to weed out the weak. They are so obsessed with power that they will unintentionally weaken themselves while seeking it. Think of how many 'weak' soldiers they have killed that could be used in battles. Sometimes overwhelming an enemy with numbers is the best way to defeat them."

"That's what we had to do to the Mandalorians. We outnumbered them by so much for the entire war but they fought like desperate Drexls." I responded.

"Exactly. The Mandalorians were much stronger than Republic soldiers, but I used our sheer numbers and flanks to overwhelm them in battles. But, the Sith do not think like that. They are to narrow minded. The thing that I think is humorous about the Sith, is that even though they do their best to weed out the weak links, I believe there is to many of them. Far to many of them. They have a self-destructive way of ruling." He told me with a slight chuckle.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked him.

"Well, the way the Sith operate is that the strong will kill the weak in order to climb through the ranks of power or secure their own spots in the chain of command. So, with that in mind, shouldn't the Masters kill students that cannot live up to a potential greater than theirs?" He asked me.

"I supposed so, based on what you have said." I told him.

"Exactly, but instead they waste time on training dozens of students at a time in hidden academies, rather than just kill the weak ones, or send them away and focus on one or two students with the most potential." He said, his eyes constantly searching the surrounding jungle.

"So how many Sith do you think would bring about the most effectiveness?" I asked him, now curious on his thoughts on the Sith.

"Two. One master, and one student. It is the only way to prevent the entirety of the Sith from destroying each other over and over. It is the reason why the pure-blood Sith have been so close to extinction so many times, or why the Sith of today that follow their teachings have been pushed to the edges of the galaxy so many times in the past. Even since I have been on this planet I have only seen very few of the pure-bloods, and even they are shells of the power the ancient race once held." He told me.

"So you believe only two Sith should be in power at one time?" I asked.

"Yes, that way, the master can be the embodiment of power, and the apprentice will crave it. The apprentice will then only be able to bypass his masters power when he is stronger than him. Then the apprentice will know everything his master had learned from all the masters before him. So in theory, each new master would be much stronger than the previous, as he would have another entire life of knowledge to teach to his next apprentice. Also, then the master would be able to focus on teaching one, single student all that he knows. One student would not learn one lesson while another student learned a different lesson. One student would be able to learn all of his master's knowledge." He said.

"Wow. You've put a lot of thought into this, haven't you, Revan?" I asked.

"I have, Matt. I was once the Dark Lord of the Sith, and had their best interests in my mind constantly. I thought at one point that would be the best way to strengthen the Republic. I had planned on exacting this idea with Malak. I was going to train him as I in turn grew in power, and I planned on taking him back to this place to slay the Sith Emperor and set the plan in motion." He chuckled and shook his head. "I was so naive."

I laughed nervously but didn't say anything, wanting him to continue talking, remembering how I missed talking to him.

"Do you want to know something strange my friend?" He asked, glancing at me before returning his alert eyes to the surrounding jungle.

I nodded my head.

"One of the things that haunts me most, is that sometimes my adventures as a Sith Lord seem more fresh in my subconscious than my journey to stop Malak and even more recently my journey in the outer rim to find this planet. It seems that, as I remember them, they take up the more recent memories my mind. It gets very difficult to keep track of, even though I should clearly remember the order in which they take place, it gets muddled sometimes. Sometimes, I feel more like the Sith Lord, Darth Revan, than hero of the Republic and Jedi, Master Revan." He said.

"Which one would you rather be, Revan? Which one is who you truly are?" I asked.

"Neither. I am neither Master Jedi Revan, or Darth Revan. I am Revan. Just Revan." He said, looking up to me.

"That is what I wanted to hear. To long people have tried to mold you for their own purpose." I told him.

"That is actually one of the reasons I have tried so hard to stop the Emperor, besides the threat he holds to the Republic. He forced his way into my mind and I could do nothing about it. He controlled me and forced me to do his will, all why poisoning my mind with lies and false fears. I killed so many, and turned so many away from the truth and convinced them that the lies I had come to believe were truth. And it infuriates me. He will pay. I, Revan, will make him pay." He said, with fire in his eyes.

I knew what he said was true. Lord Vitiate would suffer at Revan's hands. It was a very strange feeling to fear for such a powerful man in the Force, a near entity-type presence. A vessel of pure darkness and a master unrivaled in the ways of the Dark Side. But fear for him I did. Revan would make him suffer.

We walked for a few more minutes through the thick jungle before finally breaking through the jungle brush to see a huge city stretched before our eyes. Revan pulled back a few branches to give me a clear view of the large city.

"Kaas City." He murmured. He looked to me, "Do you remember when you, Malak, and I secretly created the Revanchists against the Jedi Council's wishes then used them to fight the Mandalorians and lead the Republic?" He asked, a grin on his face.

"Of course, Revan. It changed the course of the Republics history. I will never forget it." I told him.

"Well, it is once again time for the Revanchists to rise up and conquer a seemingly unbeatable enemy. Only this time, the Revanchists with not be Jedi's. They well be Sith and exiles."


	8. Chapter 8: Scourged

Chapter 8: Scourged

We stepped silently around the outskirts of Kaas City, doing our best to remain silent even though the noise of the city was surely blocking out any sounds we could have made. I could hear now, that the world was undoubtedly populated. The city was almost as loud as Nar Shaddaa.

"Darth Nyriss's abode is just on the outskirts of Kaas City. It is a massive building, and heavily fortified. We can sneak through most of the complex, but some of her guards are highly trained force sensitives, and may sense us when we near her. She herself might notice us when we get close enough. Be ready for anything." He told me, his voice low.

"How do you know this, Revan?" I asked him.

"Matt, I have been here on this very planet for nearly five years. Mainly near Kaas City, trying to find a way to Lord Vitiate. I don't know everything, but I know general information about nearly every council member or government official, and much about the layout of this planet." He stated. "Sadly, I believe they also know of me, and my intentions, and they stay ready for me."

"Well, if you kill enough important people, someone is bound to notice." I said with a grin.

He nodded his head but I couldn't tell his facial expression due to his mask.

We crawled on our hands and knees over a short hill, and when we crested the top, I saw a huge building, the size of the academy on Dantooine. A couple of Dark Jedi in long, loose robes walked in between two young-looking human males, dressed in gray Sith officer uniforms with dark gray caps and into the front doors. They were too young to be anything other than Sergeants.

"What's the best way to go in? Should we try the front door?" I asked jokingly.

"I see no problem with that." He said. He stood up straight and brushed his robes off.

I stared at him half with terror, and half with awe. He was actually going to try and walk through the front door.

I stumbled awkwardly downhill after him, who was walking confidently and briskly. We approached the two guards standing by the huge front double doors.

We neared the doors and when the two guards noticed us they gripped their blasters nervously and one of them shouted, "Halt. State your business."

"Oh, we are just here to see our mistress, Darth Nyriss." He stated calmly with his hands folded in front of him.

"I don't recognize you." The guard said. "What is your title? And who is this man with you?"

"I have no formal rank among the Sith. I'm a close friend of Darth Nyriss." He said, charismatic and smooth. He motioned to me with his thumb, "This is my pilot."

The guards glanced nervously at each other. The one who had been talking quickly tapped his com-link to open it, I guessed to contact a superior.

"You will let us in." Revan said, his words flowed like nectar, coated heavily with the Force in order to persuade the guards.

The guard who had remained silent had a glazed over look in his eyes. He spoke up, "I will let you in."

He turned to open the door before the other guard, said, "No, you fool. Don't open the door. Let me ask Commander Matspen."

Revan placed his hands on the more vocal guard's shoulder and said, "You _**will**_ let us in."

The guards shoulders dropped into a much more passive posture.

"Okay. I will let you in." He turned and opened the door, motioning to Revan and me to enter.

Revan and I quickly brushed by the guards and into the large fortress of Darth Nyriss. We ducked into a dark empty room to the right side of the huge hallway that seemed to stretch for an eternity in length. I thought I could see it open into a large open room, but it was hard to see from such a distance. I focused on the dark room we were in. I could feel the Dark Side all around me, filling the entire building. I did my best to keep it out of my mind, but I could feel it swelling around me, hate, anger, fear, unbridled passion, all forcing it's way into the cracks of my mind. We would have to conclude our business in this place quickly, our or motives could be easily altered.

I glanced to Revan, "We need to hurry."

He nodded and poked his head out the door and into the hallway, still crouched, with his chest pressed flatly against the wall. I was right behind him, on one knee with my back against the wall. He motioned me forward then slipped into the hall. His steps were silent and quick, as were mine. I followed him closely on his heels, crouched over and close to the wall.

We made it nearly fifty yards down the hallway before we heard voices coming from one of the hallway intersections. We dipped into a darkened room on the right and let the voices dim as the people who were speaking continued down the hall. Revan peeked his head out, then quickly motioned for me to follow and slipped into the hallway again.

As we approached the end of the hallway, I begin to notice that it opened into a large open room, with a large, long table with chairs on each side. It did not look like the table was for eating, but rather meetings. The room was mainly grey in color, with red lanterns and sunlight lighting up the room. I guessed that there were large windows that took up most of the walls were on both sides of the room, providing most of the light in room. After nightfall it would probably be hard to see in that room.

Revan pulled me into a dark room on the right and whispered, "The sun will sink below the horizon in just a few minutes. We should wait until then to proceed."

I nodded, "That's what I was thinking. It seems like most of that rooms light comes from the sun."

He nodded and leaned back against the wall, quieting his breathing.

We waited in the room for almost ten minutes before the sun finally dropped below the horizon and the large room ahead of us was veiled in darkness.

Revan peaked his head into the hallway, but jerked his head back quickly.

"Hide!" He told me, his voice panicked.

He ducked behind a couch that was in the room. My eyes had finally adjusted enough to the darkness for me to discover that the room seemed to be an office of some sort. I saw a desk and decided to try and hide under it. I scrambled over to it and slid behind it, heaving from my accelerated heart beat.

I heard footsteps approaching the room. They grew closer and closer until finally, I could tell they were in the room. The lights flipped on, and my heart sunk.

I heard the footsteps shuffle around the room heavily. I heard a terminal power up. I decided to check and see what was going on. I peeked under the small crack between the floor and the bottom of the desk, and all I could see was that the feet were pointing towards the wall, and away from me. The person was wearing grey combat boots, so I assumed it was a Sith officer, as a common soldier would not have access to it's own office.

I decided to act fast. I quietly crawled out from underneath the desk, careful not to make a sound. I took off my over robe and gently set it on the ground. I slowly sneaked up behind the officer, before I realized his uniform. I realized he was a commander. A middle-aged human with pale-white skin and dark hair. I assumed it was the Commander Matspen that was mentioned earlier by the young door guards. When there was about four feet in between him and I, I cleared my throat.

He jumped, startled, and turned around. Before his eyes met mine, I had already spun around, and used the extra momentum to generate a massive kick directly into his right-hand lung and liver. He heaved, as his breath was forced from his body from my rib-breaking roundhouse kick. I felt the force that was driving my heel into his midsection break a few of his ribs. As he crumpled to the ground I laced my fingers behind his neck and pulled his head down while I brought my knee into his chin, knocking him completely unconscious. His eyes rolled backwards and his body stiffened.

I caught him before he hit the ground, making my take down completely silent. I drug him over to the couch Revan was now standing up from behind of, and lay him there.

"I've never seen you do something like that before. I don't believe any Jedi taught you that." He said, his voice low.

"I believe we have both learned new things since we have seen each other. I learned it from someone very special to me." I responded, thinking of Brianna. I went and picked up my robe, careful not to leave it behind.

"You should teach me that sometime." He flipped off the light, and slipped quietly back into the hallway.

We sneaked quietly into the opening of the wall that led into the large gathering room of Darth Nyriss' stronghold. There were stairs on both ends of the room, in front of the large windows. The stairs lead up to a balcony that was about twenty feet above the floor, that ran along the top of the room opposite of the large opening Revan and I had walked through. There were no windows or doors on the balcony, save one large door that sat right in the middle of the walkway that ran along the top of the room. I could tell that the room was probably the only room that wasn't connected to the Great Hall we had just came from.

Revan pointed to it and said, "That is Darth Nyriss' personal quarters. We need to extremely cautious. She will kill us in a moments notice."

I nodded to him, and we made our way to the staircase on the right side of the room, since the moonlight was shining on the left side of the room.

We quickly and easily made our way to the door. It was almost to easy. I thought I could hear whispers in the dark corners of the room, but decided it was just the Dark Side playing tricks on my mind, as it had on Korriban, and in other places tainted by the Dark Side.

Revan placed his hand on the door, going to push it open. He turned and looked at me, and hesitated just for a moment. He nodded his head and pushed the door open. There were bookshelves lining a few of the walls. There were holocrons stored on the wall opposite of the doorway Revan and me stood in. They were dangerous Sith artifacts, and even standing in their presence gave me a certain uneasiness. If someone were to learn all the secrets that the Dark Lords of old had put in them, they would be formidable Dark Side users without a doubt.

We both stood up, as sneaking in the presence of the Dark Mistress would be pointless. She would feel our Force auras with us being only steps away from her.

Her quarters were almost completely dark, with very few lights that hummed with a red aura lighting a few of the medium sized room's doorways and corners. I noticed her sitting in the center of the room, meditating. It was hard to make out her features but she was facing Revan and I, her legs crossed and arms folded. Her head was bowed.

Although I couldn't make out all the details on her face, she had the facial shape of a beautiful woman, much like Bastilla, or Brianna. She had the body of a young woman, which was strange for a member of the Dark Council, as it usually took them many decades to find a spot on the council. Her hair was long, healthy, and pulled neatly out of her face. I found myself strangely attracted to her.

She then looked up, and all the lights in the room brightened. The evidence of the Dark Side in her was all over her face. She was a pure blood Sith, but her skin was a sickly pink color, rather than dark red, and it was dry and cracking around her forehead and chin. Her eyes shone a deathly yellow color. Her cheeks were sunken, and the blood vessels in her face were almost completely black with barely any red coloring in it, like her blood had coagulated underneath her skin.

I felt sick to my stomach looking at her now that she was illuminated by the lights in her room.

"Ah, Revan. I wondered when you find your way into my lovely home." She said, her voice coarse and dry. "Who is this weakling that you have brought along with you?"

I fought my anger down and let Revan speak. Me becoming angry is just what she wanted. My anger would only fuel her strength in the Dark Side, making her stronger, and make me wild and off-balance if we did come to fighting.

"This is, Matthew. I assure you, he is not weak." He said. "I did find my way into here, but it is by no means lovely. It is actually quite bland. You should fix that." He said, glancing around the room, that was actually immaculately decorated and designed.

She smirked at him, an evil, and devious grin.

Even now, I could see all the plots and dark thoughts in her eyes. All the ways that she would try to torture us if she was able to, and all the ways that she would kill us if we were lucky. Defeat was not an option in the battle that was surely approaching. Even now, she was studying us, searching for weakness, reading us and trying to find the best way to beat us.

"So tell me, Revan. Why are you here, darling?" She asked, standing up.

"Why has Lord Scourge been brought here?" He asked.

"Straight and to the point. You know, I like you, Revan. But, I will still kill you." She said.

"Ah. The arrogance of Dark Lords is something that always surprises me." Revan said, his hands folded in front him.

"Is it arrogance, Revan?" She asked, her head turned to the side.

He remained silent for a moment.

"Why has Lord Scourge been brought to Dromund Kaas?" He asked again.

"I suppose telling a dead man my plans won't cause any harm." She said. "Lord Vitiate believes Lord Scourge is loyal to him, and only him. That is not the case. Me and Lord Scourge have, history." She said with a sick smile. "He will do almost anything for me, including killing Lord Vitiate when the time is right. I brought Lord Scourge here and convinced Vitiate that he will help defend him from you, Revan. Lord Vitiate always keeps him close, thinking that he is one of his most trusted bodyguards and councilors. He has even taking to calling him, 'The Scourge of the Emperor'." She threw her head back and chuckled. "However, once you and your friend here are killed, Lord Scourge and I will kill Vitiate and I, Darth Nyriss, will ascend to the Dark Throne."

Revan walked briskly to Darth Nyriss and ripped her from the ground by her throat, her feet dangling in the air, showing off his immense physical strength. He brought her nose to his mask and growled, "Why, Darth Nyriss, do you think we will be so easily slain? We are men born into war, fighting since we were very young."

She smiled and choked out a sentence, "Because, Lord Scourge is right on time."

I turned around, and in the large open doorway, stood the Sith pure blood, Lord Scourge and the two Dark Jedi we had seen enter the compound earlier in the day, clothed in flowing dark robes with dark grey mask. I heard Darth Nyriss get dropped to the ground behind me.

"Are you ready to die, Revan?" Lord Scourge asked. I suddenly realized how large he was. He wasn't quite the imposing physical figure Malak was, but he was certainly taller then Revan and I, and was much broader. I could feel the Dark Side flowing strongly from him. He had much more raw power in the Force than Darth Nyriss had. However, I had a feeling that Darth Nyriss had mastered many more aspects of the Force than he had. I suddenly realized Revan and I likely would not survive an encounter with him if he was by himself, but here he had two Dark Jedi and Darth Nyriss.

Revan took one of his lightsabers from his belt, and I did the same. He ignited it, a long, violet blade, and I ignited mine, my cyan blade glimmering in the midst of my enemies. Lord Scourge drew his lightsaber, and his red blade crawled from the hilt, and his companions did the same with theirs. I heard one activate behind me. Revan turned to me and said, "Handle her, Matthew." Then he jumped into battle from across the room to face three masters of the Dark Side fearlessly.

I channeled the Force within me and centered myself on making out alive so I could see Brianna again. Thinking about the hopelessness of the now raging battle would not bring me victory. I willed my muscles to tighten, my lungs to take in deeper breaths, and my body to respond more quickly using the Force.

Darth Nyriss stood in a defensive stance, bracing herself for my charging attack as I ran at her, swinging down in a powerful strike, she parried it and we locked in a mesmerizing dance of ducking under our glowing sabers, or stepping out of range of each others attacks. Our blades were spinning wildly, countering and returning attacks. My natural eyes could not keep track of the light show that had taken over the room, so I was relying almost completely on the Force to counter and dodge her attacks, as I was sure she was too.

I could hear Revan shouting behind me, fighting like the fierce warrior he was, not willing to die even in the face of certain death.

I kicked at Darth Nyriss' knee, trying to whittle down at her defense and hopefully slow her down if I connected. She hopped backwards, then leapt forward, her blade swinging in a wide overhand strike. I stepped to the left and punched her in the temple with my left cybernetic hand.

It would have knocked any normal sentient out, but it merely knocked her off balance, which was enough to satisfy me. I knew the power she held within her from the dark side, and any successful strike against her was enough to boast my confidence enough to continue fighting.

She stepped back and shook off the solid punch, then assumed a more aggressive stance and prepared to charge. I heard a man scream, and heard a lightsaber power down. The noise was quickly followed by the very familiar sound of a body collapsing to the floor. I knew it wasn't Revan, as the Violet light of his lightsaber still bounced off of the walls of the room.

Darth Nyriss charged at me, and her blows came much faster than my mind could comprehend. The Force guided my hands in the direction to go, and even still I could barely keep up with her attacks. I did my best to keep my elbows tight to my body, and continue to place the blade of my saber in between her blade and my body, but it did not work.

She found a weakness in my defense, and cut at my shoulder, connecting and causing the too familiar hotness of the lightsaber to cause me a great deal of pain. I could smell my flesh, but continued my best to continue my defense. I rolled under her next attack and resumed my defensive stance.

I heard another lightsaber deactivate, and another body thud to the ground.

Darth Nyriss smiled, "I bet you are now beginning to feel a bit of hope creep into your fragile heart, aren't you, Exile?" She smiled as my shoulders slump, dread creeping into me, weakening my resolve. "You were to weak to follow those foolish Jedi, and were to weak to channel the power of the dark side. You are nothing!"

"Don't listen to her!" Revan called. I glanced over to him, my arms suddenly heavy, and my spirit weak, and I noticed that Scourge and him were in a blade lock, with Scourge obviously getting the better of Revan.

Revan was down on one knee, trying to push Lord Scourge away from him, with Lord Scourge pushing the blade of his lightsaber closer, and closer to Revan's neck. The two Dark Jedi lay still and motionless near the feet of Revan and Lord Scourge.

Revan looked to me, and I could see the defeat he had in his body language. I felt so weak. Then he did something completely unexpected. He thrust his hand out at me, and Force pushed me. The power of it sent me flying, I crashed through a small window behind me, and as I was flying through the air, I could here the wind whipping around me. I braced myself in the Force as I felt myself nearing the ground.

I landed in a few branches, which caught the brunt of my fall, but cut me a few times, then I fell from the branches out of the tree and onto my back.

I tried to gather myself, to charge back into the fight and assist Revan, but darkness fell over my eyes, and I slipped once again into unconsciousness.

I had faced Darth Nyriss and The Scourge of the Emperor, and I had been defeated.


	9. Chapter 9: Vision

Chapter 9: Vision

My eyes snapped open. I sat up quickly. Too quickly. My head began to spin violently, and I felt like I was going to throw up. No, I was throwing up. I leaned my head to the side and vomited. The vomit came out my nose and made my eyes water. I guess the impact of my landing, and stress of the situation was to much for my stomach to handle.

When I finished, I laid my head back down in the grass, careful not to lay down in my throw up. I heard footsteps coming from the jungle on my right. They were heavy steps, and belonged to a very large creature. I didn't bother moving. I in no way could defend myself if something was coming to attack me.

"I have been looking for you." I heard a deep, elegant voice say.

I instantly recognized the voice. "Lord Scourge." I growled as I wobbly stood up to face the direction from where his voice came.

"Have you come to finish what your master could not? Have you come to kill me?" I asked as I faced into the darkness of the jungle from which I could hear him approaching me.

He came into view, under the light of the night sky, to where I could see his glimmering metal armor, and half of his face. His huge bulky armor made his large and imposing stature much more intimidating. He leaned to a nearby tree and folded his arms.

"That wretched woman is not my master, but I was sent here to kill you." He said with a sick smile.

I began reaching for my lightsaber. It was not on my belt. I saw a strange glimmer in between Lord Scourge's feet and focused on it. It was my lightsaber, barely visible in the grass. I looked up and met his yellow eyes. It was a terrifying sight. His face only half visible, but yet, both eyes clearly distinguishable and glowing brightly. It looked like the fires of Mustafar were raging in his eyes.

"You are lucky Exile, that I am not actually here to kill you. As you have by now have noticed, you are completely defenseless." He said, looking down at my lightsaber in between his feet.

"Why aren't you going to kill me?" I asked.

"Simply because you are of more use to me alive. I have a deal for you. You can help me, or I will kill you here in this jungle, and your master will die on this planet within a week." He said.

Thankfully he had confirmed to me that Revan was alive.

"What could I possibly help you with? And Revan is not my master." I asked, confused, and angry that I was probably going to have to help him if I was going to save Revan, or if I was ever going to see Brianna again.

"I don't care who he is to you honestly. I figured he was your Master because you are weaker than him." He said with a shrug. Then before I could protest what he had just said, he said flatly, "I need Darth Nyriss dead."

I was a bit shocked.

"But Darth Nyriss had spoken as if you were friends, perhaps more than that. She stated you two had history." I said, confused.

"Yes, I hard that insane woman's inane babbling. While we do have history, none of it is enjoyable, and I wish that I had never met the woman. However, it is great for me that she believes that I am trustworthy, because if you fail to assassinate her, she will never suspect me and I will simply find another way to get her out of my way." He said.

"Why do you wish her dead?" I asked.

"Because if she is out of the way, then I will take her seat on the Dark Council. I am the clear choice. That will put me that much closer to the Emperor." He said.

"Do you want the Emperor dead as well?" I asked.

"Do not ask foolish questions, Exile. If she is dead, I will be elevated in rank and title. That is all you need to know. Will you do as I say to eliminate her?" He asked.

"Will I be able to leave this planet with Revan if I succeed in killing her?" I asked.

"Yes." He said quickly. To quickly. But it would have to do. If I could get to Revan our chances of escaping would be much greater.

"Okay." I said. "I'll do it."

"Good. Go to your ship and rest. I will meet you at sun up to give you directions. It will be fun I'm sure."

He whipped around to leave into the jungle, but I foolishly called to him, "What if your plan fails, and I kill you instead?"

He stopped dead in his steps, and turned on his heels. His face was completely veiled in the shadow where he stood, save his eyes. While he was staring at me, they changed from a raging yellow, to a dark, and disturbing orange, swirling furiously and agitated. My knees went weak witnessing the terrifying change in color.

He took three large and quick strides, to cover the respectable distance between us. He ripped me off the ground as Revan did Nyriss. But I was a two hundred pound man, where Nyriss was barely one hundred pounds. And Lord Scourge picked me up with much more ease than Revan had Darth Nyriss. The show of strength brought even more fear into my heart.

As I dangled in the air he very flatly told me, as I gasped for air, "If you ever build the courage to threaten me again, I will end your life. It will not be painless and it will not be slow. You will die, realizing that the second you doubted my ability to destroy you, was the second your life began to end. I will tear the Force from your body. I will break your bones and your body. I will sear your flesh with my lightsaber. I will bleed you out slowly. I will kill **you**." He dropped me and I collapsed with a thud, heaving for air.

He leaned over and looked me in the eyes. He opened his mouth to say something, but the Force gave me a vision as he went to speak.

...

 ** _I stood in the doorway of a dimly lit room. I guessed it was of Sith or Dark Side origin, and the room was grey colored and the Dark Side was overwhelming in the room, much as it had been in the Korriban temples. I looked out of the room and saw a grand walkway, easily one hundred yards long and ten yards wide, with a large and black abyss under it, seemingly bottomless. The walkway was held up by grand columns, who's bottoms dissipated into the darkness of the abyss from where they came from. There was other smaller walkways that led into rooms on the left and right-hand side of the grand walkway. At the end of the walkway sat an empty throne._**

 ** _I looked back into the room and Lord Scourge seemingly materialized from the shadows in the room, and motioned with his hand to the other side of the room. I looked in that direction and saw Revan in a holding cell, his head slumped over, and his mask still on his face. I looked back to Lord Scourge._**

 ** _In my vision he said something, but all I could see was him mouthing words, I couldn't actually hear what he was saying. He leaned his head in Revan's direction, as if telling me to go get him. I walked towards his cell. If was very dark on his side of the room, and his electric barrier provided the only light in the room, so I didn't know what I was walking into, but I knew I needed to reach him._**

 ** _When I got close to him the darkness of the room seemed to began swallowing me, and my eyesight was growing dim. I went to the terminal that was lightly pulsating next to Revan and began trying to deactivate the seemingly lethal barrier. Usually, they were not deadly barriers, but were meant to either stun or incapacitate the captive if they tried to free themselves. They usually hummed slightly, but Revan's crackled and was intensely bright. Bits of electricity jumped out from the barrier and sizzled on the ground._**

 ** _I was still working on the terminal when I heard feet shuffling up behind me. I whipped around and met the eyes of Darth Nyriss. I jumped back a few feet away from her and pulled out my lightsaber._**

 ** _"You sure are jumpy. Rough day?" She asked laughing out loud at me._**

 ** _"Yes. Getting chased by psychotic Sith and getting caught up in ridiculous power struggles can make a man jumpy." I said back, holding my lightsaber tight to my body, ready to defend myself._**

 ** _Lord Scourge approached us._**

 ** _"Ah Lord Scourge, I was hoping you would be here, now I get to kill both of you at the same time, present the captured Revan to our Emperor, and keep myself safe from another assassination attempt." She said smiling as a strange paleness washed over Lord Scourge._**

 ** _"How do you know about that?" He asked in a low voice._**

 ** _"I have sensed a plot from you for sometime. You leading the Exile to Revan just confirms that you want to use them to kill me. It is the only reason you would allow Revan to be freed, because my death is more profitable to you than you turning over Revan to the Emperor." She said._**

 ** _"Enough, Woman. You die here. I will simply tell the Emperor that you were trying to free Revan to use against him when he asked why you were killed. You challenging me will be your death." He pulled out his lightsaber and ignited it, the red blade sizzling from the hilt._**

 ** _"What of your new friend?" She asked with her head tilted to the side._**

 ** _"Him and his companion will leave this planet, never to be seen again." He looked at me and nodded. I was not convinced that was his plan, but no was no time to second guess him. It would take me and him both to kill Darth Nyriss._**

 ** _She drew her blade and spoke up. "Then you will both die here, scared and useless."_**

 ** _She leapt at us and began a furious onslaught. The mix of red and cyan bouncing of the walls was disorienting and sickening. I looked into the Force so that I could ease my mind of the light show that our blades were giving us. It was much easier to focus when seeing through the Force._**

 ** _Even with Darth Nyriss focusing on me and Lord Scourge, I could barely keep up with her. Something had changed about her. She was much stronger than before. Fear gripped my heart and mind. I was going to die here. She met my eyes and grinned. She stuck her hand toward me and I felt Force Lighting rip through me. I fell to the ground in pain, screaming. I saw Lord Scourge leap through the air in a wide overhand strike, but she shot out another hand in his direction and Force Lightning met him and he fell to the ground, his momentum completely stopped in mid-air._**

 ** _He moaned and grunted, but did not scream as he convulsed on the ground and the lighting arc throughout the room, destroying crates and melting plasteel cylinders._**

 ** _If not for my willpower and affinity in Jedi Defense, I would have been killed on impact from the vicious lighting._**

 ** _But suddenly and abruptly, the pain stopped. I could see my clothes smoking. I noticed I was no longer being electrocuted. My eyes stopped ringing just in time from me to realize Darth Nyriss was screaming in pain. I lifted up my head to notice her clutching her right wrist with her left hand. Her right hand was gone, smoking and glowing red hot. Revan stood next to her with his lightsaber drawn. His violet blade humming quietly._**

 ** _"Enough of you. It is time for you to die." He growled. He drew back to strike at her, but suddenly she reached out her left hand, and sent out a blast of lightning, but at the very last second, Revan caught it with his lightsaber, and redirected it back at her._**

 ** _She screamed, and cried out, but did not stop the lightning, continually trying to catch a weakness in Revan's defense. He simply twitched his blade in whichever direction she sent the lightning and kept on walking towards her. Her screams where horrific, and they made me feel sick._**

 ** _Soon, she fell to the ground in a heap, smoking, and dead. Her skin was charred and pale, and smelled awful. Her eyes oozed out of their sockets, and blood filled, then ran out of her gaping mouth down her cheek. Despite my years of war, and all the awful things I had witnessed, I couldn't look at the gory image, so I cut my eyes back to Revan, who was approaching me. He stretched his hand out and lifted me off my feet._**

 ** _"Come on." He said softly. "We need to leave."_**

 ** _He lifted me off the ground, and put my arm over his shoulder. My knees were weak and I felt very heavy._**

 ** _We started towards the door when suddenly, fear gripped my heart, and time seemed to slow._**

 ** _A man, cloaked in dark gray robes, creep into the room. His stature was not impressive. He was a short man, and sickly thin. Every part of my being told me to run from him and hide. I knew running know would do no good._**

 ** _He looked up and faced me. His eyes locked onto mine, and when our eyes met, it was as if part of my soul was instantly taken from my body._**

 ** _"Good." He croaked. "You are scared."_**

 ** _I stayed silent, to afraid to speak._**

 ** _"You will never leave this place. You are going to die. And there is nothing Revan can do to save you." His voice moved me, and reached into the very essence of the Force that resided in me. I could feel him draining me of my power, and willing me to surrender, just by speaking. I knew he was using the Force to instill fear in me, but I was defenseless to him._**

 ** _I looked at Revan, but he only stared at his feet, not moving, barely breathing. I could feel his fear, and it crushed me. He had never backed down, or been afraid, even in the face of certain defeat. But he stood beside me, cowering._**

 ** _I felt a sharp pain right below the center of my chest and looked down._**

 ** _A red lightsaber blade protruded from my body._**

 ** _"Sorry, Exile. You have outlived your usefulness." Lord Scourge whispered in my ear._**

 ** _It was a strange feeling, the heat I could feel inside my body. I lost the strength to stand and fell to my knees. I couldn't catch my breath. I tried really hard to take a breath, but the air would not fill my lungs. I could see stars and was growing numb. I couldn't even stay on my knees any longer. I fell on my face._**

 ** _"No!" Revan screamed, as he leapt towards the Emperor. The Emperor raised his hand and Revan slammed into the ground face first, not moving._**

 ** _I need Brianna here. A bright light filled my vision as I struggled to breathe, before slipping into oblivion._**

 ** _..._**

My eyes snapped open to Lord Scourge standing over me shouting, "Do you understand, Exile?"

I nodded my head.

"Good, now go rest before I end your miserable life." He whipped around and disappeared into the darkness.

The Force had just shown me in great detail how I was going to die. I was sure of it. It was so vivid, it felt like the Force had actually let me live it.

But I had a plan. I was not going to die on this Sith-cursed planet. Not here, not now. I ran toward Kaas City, my mind already deciding the best way to save Revan and I from death.


	10. Chapter 10: Escape

Chapter 10: Escape

I collapsed on the boarding ramp of the Ebon Hawk just as the sun of this planet's light first crested the horizon. I had ran nearly all night. Being that I was in the jungle, not much light got through, and it was still fairly dark. The sun rise here had an odd beauty to it. I was to tired to admire it.

Just as I closed my eyes, T3-M4 began obnoxiously beeping, informing me that HK was in critical condition, and that he was in stasis, and asked if we could leave with Revan soon.

I was a bit annoyed. Sometimes I really regretted not giving that droid regular memory wipes. They developed odd personalities if not, and often times acted like children. But he held far to much precious information that could be lost. I had decided long ago his weird quirks were worth his many skills and his ability to almost think freely.

"No, T3, we have to wait on Lord Scourge to lead me to him. Then we can leave. I promise. Keep the Ebon Hawk running." I said rubbing my forehead, still laying on my back.

He let out a dreary 'droooo' then fell back into the Ebon Hawk.

I shortly there after began to drift off, exhausted before I heard heavy footsteps approaching. I sat up, and clutched my still sore shoulder, anticipating Lord Scourge.

He broke through the treeline into my sight.

"Wake up early or couldn't sleep?" He asked smugly.

"I guess you could say I couldn't sleep." I said while standing up.

"Let's skip the small and get this over with." I said, not in the mood to deal with his usual mindless banter.

"You know Exile, I'm beginning to like you more and more everyday. To the point, get the job done types like you would do me a lot of good." He said turning to lead me a direction to the west side of Kaas City.

My adventures last night had taught me much of the infrastructure of the massive city. Sadly I did not have time to explore the city as much as I would have liked to.

Thankfully, Lord Scourge remained quiet the entire time we walked through the jungle, until we reached a drain pipe that smelled of sewage on the outskirts of the city walls. Sometimes his banter was more annoying then Kriea's. The dialect and unending banter of Sith was to much for me to be able to handle. I could hear and see Kaas City from where we stood.

"This is where you go in." He said, motioning to the drain and disgusting pool at our feet.

"Why here?" I asked plugging my nose with my metal fingers.

"This, luckily enough, is the only entrance into Kaas City the is completely unguarded. You can go straight underneath the Emperors fortress and never see another soul, or any kind of defenses. Just don't mind the smell. Its a straight shot to where Revan is. I'll mark the location on your map on where you can emerge from the pipe, and be directly in Revan's holding room." He said with a smile.

"Why would any entrance into the Emperor's palace be unguarded?" I asked.

"Because no one has ever been dumb enough to climb through a mile of feces just to climb into the most guarded building on the planet, and possibly the galaxy. You are the first and the last." He said while grabbing my data-pad to upload the map marker.

As soon as he did it, I just jumped in, not wanting to postpone the inevitable any longer, and swung open the gate to the sewage drain.

...

I walked for what seemed like an eternity, but knew it was no longer then a mile, as Lord Scourge had said. The air was thick and putrid, it was as if this pipe had never been cleaned before, and just had sewage in it for centuries, rotting and stagnant.

It wasn't long before my data-pad lit up, informing me I was just a few meters away from the map marker Lord Scourge had placed for me.

As he had promised, no defenses were in the sewer, but I had no idea what waited for me above.

I got to my map marker and looked up and saw a small gate, about as broad as my shoulders. I felt a cold draft. It must have been an air vent of some short.

I jumped a few inches off the ground and grabbed the gate. It broke off of its rusted hinges easily and clattered onto the ground.

I jumped back up and grabbed onto the ledge and pulled myself up fairly easily. I had a bit of trouble squeezing into the vent, but after a bit of squirming got my shoulders in and pull my legs through the hole. I was almost positive that it smelt worse in the air vent then it did in the sewer.

I thought the lack of noise was odd. It was supposed to be one of the most guarded buildings on the planet, possibly the galaxy and there was no signs of life anywhere. The odd thing was, that even through the force I could not feel life. I decided to keep my guard up.

I walked a little ways down the hallway, and saw another gate opening into a pitch black room. This gate was kept in much better condition and I doubted I could break it loose with my hands. I tried it anyways, but as I suspected it was of no use.

I put my back to the wall of the vent and kicked the gate as hard as I could with both of my legs. It buckled in the middle and broke loose of one of the screws holding to the wall. I did it once more and completely knocked one side off. I decided to just crawl out like that, bending the gate out of my way, rather then just kick it again and it clatter to the ground and make unnecessary noise.

I stepped into the dark room and my stomach dropped. I was in the exact same room I had been in during my vision. Lo and behold Revan was exactly where I had seen him.

I look back into the room with the large Grand walkway, and saw a large Sith walking towards me, I panicked for just a moment before I realized it was the Scourge of the Emperor.

"Let's hurry along. The guards will be back shortly. I did not give them much to do."

The rest of what followed was a blur, I was force to relive the moments following up to my death, and I felt as if I wasn't even controlling my body, and that fate and destiny was just carrying me through.

I found myself coming out of the trance-like state I was in, with Revan assisting me back to the air vent I had come from. I rummaged in my pocket, clutching the only hope I had of making it out alive. Darth Nyriss' charred body smelled worse in person.

Just as in my vision, I was suddenly overwhelmed with a sickness in my stomach, like I was going to vomit. The Emperor rounded the corner, with his yellow-pale skin and disturbing eyes the only thing visible under his hood.

I kept my hand in my pocket, knowing the timing would have to be perfect and that the Force would have to be with me.

He went through his speech trying to instill fear, but for some odd reason, I was not scared of him this time, he did not intimidate me as he did in my vision. A part of control he was supposed to have over me was gone and I could feel it.

I felt the Force quickening me, and strength returning to my body. A second winds of sorts. But it was not coming from me, but from another, very powerful source. It was strange to feel the power of the Light Side in such a dark and evil place.

As soon as I heard Lord Scourge's lightsaber power up a pressed the button on the Permacrete Detonator I had been holding, which instantly set off a dozen charges I had set in random locations the night before. I had guessed perfectly where The Emperor's Palace was based on how guarded it was the night before when planning my escape out. It was blind luck that one of the charges was directly above where the Emperor stood causing debris to fall on top of him, crushing and killing his guards and blocking the walkway into the hall. I could hear screams coming from all over the building.

I looked behind me, and Lord Scourge lay in a heap behind me, blood trickling from a gash in his head. Some flying debris must have knocked him unconscious.

Revan gave me a firm rap on the back and nod of approval. If only I could have seen his face. We crawled into the air vent, where the rubble closely surrounded it, and left about a yard of crawl space, and jumped down into the sewers, covering the mile long tunnel in less then two minutes, an impossible feet without the Force. We jumped out of the sewage pipe and I merely pointed to the direction of the Ebon Hawk and Revan turned and kept up his sprint towards the ship. I could hear Sith vehicles behind us. Surely they knew where I had been landed for nearly three days by now. I had no idea what awaited us once we got to the landing.

We approached the landing in a few seconds, the Force pushing us to run impossibly fast. There was a squad of six guards in Special Operations jet black armor. Me and Revan cut through them before the last one looked up. As I was going up the boarding ramp I slowed down to a walk. Big mistake.

I heard a Marksman Blaster go off in the far distance, I had barely even heard it. As I turned around, a felt the heat of a laser skim the top of my shoulder. If I had not turned and was standing still and not walking, the shot would have hit me in between the eyes. I saw the glare of a scoop through the trees and in a tower in Kaas city, no less then 3 miles away. An impossible shot. I didn't stay to admire the marksman but turned and shut the ramp just as another squad broke through the trees and began an onslaught of fire.

Revan was already lifting the Ebon Hawk off the ground and yelled for me to man the bottom turret. I ran and jumped in it, and blasted down two Sith that were aiming AA shoulder-mounted launchers at us. I then turned my attention to the now twenty man force that was firing at us and eliminated them.

Just as we were getting to were the scope on the gun could no longer recognize faces, about two-hundred meters off the ground, the Emperor stepped through the treeline and pointed at the ship, and just smiled. Not at the ship, but at me. A sickening sight to say the least. I fired a bolt at him, if nothing else then to release some anger on him, and my heart nearly stopped beating. He never stopped smiling, but the large anti-personnel explosive charge stopped in mid air, about ten feet from him, then started changing direction coming back towards the ship, picking up speed faster and faster.

"Revan! Move!" I screamed from the turret seat, as Revan cut to the left as the charge narrowly missed us.

The Emperor threw his hood over his head, and the remainder of his forces retreated back into the forest with him.

...

I walked into the cockpit as Revan exited the outer atmosphere of the Dark Side planet.

"How the hell have you survived two separate encounters with that man?" I asked, almost jokingly.

"I honestly don't know. Maybe just blind luck, or maybe the Force?" He answered while taking off his mask and sitting it on the dash.

"Yeah, possibly." I replied.

He set quietly for a second, then said flatly. "You were supposed to die. I don't know how, but you changed your fate. I felt it deep down inside me. You were supposed to die."

I processed what he said just for a second, him having confirmed what I had been feeling. "I know. The Force gave me a vision of my death."

"You saw you were going to die?" He asked.

"In great detail. It appeared exactly how it was in the vision until I set off the explosive charges I had set." I answered him.

"I guess the Force showed you were to set them?" Revan asked.

"No that was actually blind luck. I learned how to make my own explosives in the few years we fought in the Mandalorian wars, and honed that skill in my adventures in the last few months. I had a companion of mine teach me how to make permacrete explosives." I told him.

"Ah, a very handy skill."

"I would have to agree, being that it saved both of our lives."

"So now that you are perhaps one of the only people in the universe to have actively changed your destiny, what are you going to do?" He asked me.

"I thought you had a plan?" I questioned him.

"Well I do, but wanted to know your thoughts." He told me.

"First, we need to return to the known galaxy. Dantooine specifically. Many of our companions and closest allies await us there. After that Coruscant. The Republic needs to know what awaits us." I answered.

"Good. I already have Dantooine in the hyper-drive. We will be there in two days."

"Only two days? I thought the nearest entry into known space was seven days." I asked surprised.

"No. The Star Maps revealed to me a much shorter distance to Dromond Kaas. Thankfully the Sith are not aware of that." He answered.

"Do you thank they will pursue us." I asked.

"No the Emperor is much to methodical for that. He will wait for years before coming after the Republic. He will make sure all of his army is fully prepared for a war with the Republic. Thankfully that will give us time to prepare for him as well. It won't help much but we will need every advantage we can get. It will take him years to prepare, his empire isn't as large as the Republic, but it is very close. They are much more organized, and they haven't fought wars in years. Besides a few of his elite forces, they are very green, which will help us. The Republic has many seasoned commanders, and hardened veterans. That will be an advantage. But their army is much more complete. They won't have men to old, or to young, fighting. They will be in much better shape and much more physically capable. We will wim this war fighting smart, not by overpowering them." He explained.

"There will be war?" I asked.

"We will be fighting wars until we are old and grey." He responded.

"Why do you say that?" I asked.

"Because we were born in this time to fight, to wage wars, to defend. Maybe even to conquer. I don't know. We will always have an enemy, even if we aren't sure of how our next enemy, or next great evil that will be. What I am sure of is that we were born men of war, and we will die that way. For now, this enemy is the Sith empire, that has remained hidden and building strength for centuries, under the rule of one single man. He knows the ins, and outs of his empire." He answered.

I knew what he said was true. We were born to fight. It mattered not which side we fought for. We were destined to fight. And at this point in our lives, our enemy was the seemingly unbeatable empire. We did not have an easy task on our hands.

"How long do we have to prepare the Republic for the Sith an The Emperor?" I asked him, already planning on preparing an army.

"Less then ten years. Our first course of action is to gain complete control of the Republics military. We can't prepare them if the Senate and Council won't allow it. Any Jedi on the council that will support us will help. Maybe Master Vrook, or Master Kavar could help us win support."

"Master Vrook, Master Kavar, Master Zez-Kai Ell, and Master Vash are all confirmed dead. I know not of any of the other council members." I told him, sadly.

"I see much has transpired in my absence. I felt great death, but did not know that much had happened." Revan hung his head and rubbed his eyes.

"I know not of any other Masters. We will have to search far and wide to recover any others. Hopefully many will returned once there hear what has happened. And maybe we can find new Force Sensitives to train." I said.

"Yes. We must keep our hopes up. We can take older pupils on Dantooine, and broaden our searches for young Force Sensitives. Maybe grey Jedi like Jolee Bindo can assist, and give advice. We need every bit of help we can get." He replied.

"Jolee Bindo has already offered his help and will be loyal to our cause. We have Mandalorians that have offered to help us under the leadership and a new Mandalore, Canderous Ordo." I said.

"Canderous is alive? That old dog. I figured he would have died in some great battle by now." He said excited. "And he is rebuilding the Mandalorian clans?" He asked a bit worried.

"Yes, but he has pledged allegiance to the Republic. I will take you to meet with him once we gather on Dantooine and Coruscant. He will be excited to talk with you. He always spoke highly of you my friend."

"That is great news. The Sith will not know what to do with Mandalorians plowing through their ranks. They simply aren't prepared for that kind of an elite force. That will help in the war tremendously." He said, his hopes building.

"We will speak more of this on Dantooine, in the presence of our allies. For now, let us rest and let our strength return. We have much travelling and negotiations ahead of us in the coming weeks. Thank you for rescuing me, my old friend." He stated.

"Yes. I sense we will accomplish much."

I went back to where I had once slept, in the crew quarters, and went into the newly built private room, and feel asleep on the bed almost as soon as I laid on the bed. My hopes for the upcoming war looking surprisingly. I knew there was a long and dangerous road ahead, but I knew that with Revan and our long list of allies and companions, that together we could defeat the Emperor and his massive Sith empire.


	11. Chapter 11: Return

Chapter 11: Return

I stepped into the cockpit as I heard the hyperdrive slowing down. I looked out the cockpit window and saw Dantooine coming into view. I wondered who had decided to come here and help with the academy and who had decided to go to Coruscant and meet with Senators and the Council.

I wondered if any member of the old Order had come, or if there were any at all left to return. So many lives had been lost in such a short amount of time, and I often wondered if the Order could ever recover.

"Hey, Matt. Where am I supposed to land? Things have probably changed and I don't think I can land in the destroyed academy." He asked.

"I funded the rebuilding of the academy when I last visited Dantooine. You can land in the academy." I informed him.

He put his head in his palms. "So much has changed my old friend. Everything is moving so fast. I don't even know who lives anymore." He told me, a bit shaken.

"You can't feel who is alive?" I asked him.

"I have only felt my dear Bastilla. Other then that I have felt much death and evil ripple out through the Force. I wasn't even sure if you were alive. I knew many of people from my old lives were dying. Even many Sith that were under me have died. I just don't know who." He said while turning the Ebon Hawk towards the academy.

"What is that like, to feel death but not know who is dying."

"Okay, close your eyes." He said. I closed my eyes and he continued, "Imagine you are in a field of grass. It is pitch black with no stars or moon in the sky to light it up. Suddenly people begin walking up to you holding candles close to their faces. As they get closer you can begin to make out features on them. You soon realize they are your loved ones, your closest friends and allies, and people you have fought with, or just passed on the street. They are all around you, forming a giant circle around you in the field, giving it light. Suddenly and without warning, they start backing away from you. When they get far enough away from you that you cannot see their faces, all the candles starting going out. Within seconds, where there was once thousands of candles, there are only a few dozen, and they are so far away you don't even know who's candle is still lit and who's went out. That's what it was like for me to feel all the deaths that transpired the last few years." He explained.

"That is amazing, and saddening at the same time. To feel such death, but not know who is dying." I asked.

"Many times I just had to block all the death from my mind. It was distracting. But that is the best way for me to explain what I felt. Hopefully, Bastilla was able to contact all of my companions. I would like to know if they all made it through those trying times without me. Hopefully, they all kept their heads down and stayed out of trouble." He said while turning on the Ebon Hawks landing gears.

"I know many of my companions came here. They were able to decide if they wanted to travel to Dantooine or Coruscant. We are all meeting on Coruscant after this. I think they all planned to stay longer on the respected planets they choose. They weren't expecting me to be gone less then two weeks." I said.

"What were they planning on doing?" He asked.

"I'm not sure. Bastilla and Carth had several things in mind to do." I said before he interrupted in excitement.

"So Carth is alive?" He said loudly.

"Yes. He was promoted to Admiral in your absence." I told him happily.

"Wow, that is quite the promotion, but well deserved. He will do well I'm sure. Anyways what were our allies planning on doing?"

"I think on Dantooine they are aiding the local government and militia prepare for military training, and are preparing the academy to hold students once again." I explained to him.

We landed and he lowered the boarding ramp and we walked that way together while he asked, "So there is a militia here on Dantooine?"

"Just here in this local settlement. I don't know about the rest of the planet. I think that the nearby settlement will be a good place to base a planet-wide militia out of. The militia leader there is a hardened man, and knows battle. He might not be the best fit, but he will work for now."

As we were walking down the ramp he asked, "Okay, and what about what they were doing on Coruscant?"

"I think they were trying to allocate funds to the Order again, and re-integrate the Order into the working government and trying to get Atris out of the picture."

"That schutta is still alive? Blast it." He said under his breath.

"Yes, and last I met her she was wielding a red lightsaber and was guarding a room of Sith holocrons from one of my close companions."

"That is grounds for exile. And as you informed in your story of events that have taken place in my absence, she is very fond of exiling people. She may have to taste her own medicine."

We opened the back entrance and headed to the council chamber in peace, with nothing to say. The academy was in much better shape then last I had saw it. There was furniture once again in the building, and where all the grass had overgrown it was once again tamed and looked livable. I could see Revan looking around admiring the restored academy. Last he had seen it, it was a pile of rubble thanks to Malak.

I couldn't hear my companions, but knew they were here because I noticed landspeeders parked outside the academy as we landed.

"Maybe they are in the sub-levels." I suggested.

"Let's go see." He picked up the pace to a jog and I fell in step behind him. As we got outside I saw there was enough landspeeders for about ten people. As we got closer to the sub-levels we heard blaster fire and lightsabers.

I looked to Revan, who wasn't wearing his mask and I saw concern on his face as we took off running into the entrance.

We ran into the entrance and could tell that without a doubt, there was a small skirmish taking place. I heard it coming down the right hand hall. We took off in that direction. As soon as we took the turn to the left, we saw what was taking place.

There was a female Jedi Cathar I didn't recognize, Mical to my surprise was fighting with a lightsaber and wearing Jedi robes, Atton and Mira, Administrator Adare, Zherron, Akkere, and a short blue Twi'lek were all fighting a massive pack of huge laigreks, probably around thirty or forty, with nearly a dozen bodies of dead laigreks already piling up around them. They were running in and out of the rooms, they were filling the halls and my friends were following them, or falling back. It was a scene of minor chaos.

Once we judged the situation, Revan and I covered the distance of nearly twenty yards in one leap with our lightsabers drawn cutting two laigreks completely in half. Our companions seemed to catch a second wind once we leapt into battle to help them. Although laigreks were fierce creatures, we quickly and efficiently killed all of them, with no injuries.

There was only one close call, where a laigrek lunged at Akkere, who was very out of his element fighting, but the Cather Jedi cut his head off right before the creature reached Akkere and the lifeless creatures body and some of it's insides thudded into Akkere, knocking him off his feet.

We all gathered around after the battle, stepping over the nearly fifty carcasses of laigreks.

"For those of you who don't know, this is Revan." I told the small group of my friends. There eyes were all lit up in amazement at the sound of his name.

"About dam time I meet him." Atton mumbled under his breath.

I looked to the Cathar woman, and the Twi'lek the only people I didn't know. The Cathar woman looked excited to see Revan, but the Twi'lek cut her eyes down and stepped back away from the group.

The Cathar woman ran to him and embraced him, breaking the silence.

"Juhani, it is so good to see you." Revan said with a smile.

"No, it is good to see you my old friend." Juhani replied with a smile.

Revan looked to me, "Matthew, this is Juhani. She went with me on my journey to find the Star Maps. She was a great help and is a powerful Jedi Guardian." He said introducing her.

I shook her hand.

"Are you the famed Jedi general from the Mandalorian Wars?" She asked.

"Well I wouldn't say famed, but I did serve under Revan as a general for ground forces in many battles in the Mandalorian Wars." I responded

"It's great to meet you." She said while stepping back.

"As I was saying everyone this is Revan." I introduced everyone to Revan that he didn't know and greeted my old friends.

When I finally introduced him to Atton, Revan cocked his head to the side, thinking.

"Atton you say?" He looked to him. "Are you Atton Rand?"

"Yes." Atton looked confused. "How do you know me."

"Your name was mentioned to me several times in the Jedi Civil." Revan said.

Atton turned ghost white once he realized the reason knew him.

"Do not worry, Atton. I understand that both of our pasts are best left forgotten."

Atton sighed in relief.

"Mical!" I called to him, breaking the silence, and he looked to me.

"Yes?"

"When did you learn to use a lightsaber?"

"Well I had been studying for some time and had started practicing before we met. After my encounter with you I decided to start practicing more. I can already do simple things, like closing doors with the force, or picking up a pen, but nothing to extreme. However, I seem to be a very efficient combatant already. I have managed to find a holocron on several Jedi teachings and a few texts on lightsaber techniques." He replied.

"Amazing. You picked up on lightsaber techniques and simple force techniques without a Master? Imagine what a little bit of mentoring can do for you. You will be powerful indeed." Revan said.

"That is quite the compliment coming from you. Thank you, Master Revan." Mical.

"Call me Revan. Just Revan." My old friend responded.

"So what happened here?" Revan ask.

"Well as you can see we were attack by laigreks." Atton answered. I waited for him to continue, but he left it at that.

"What he meant to say," Mira picked up where he left off, "was that we found a nest of laigreks a little deeper in the catacombs while checking on the progress here, and Zherron here decided to lob a thermal detonator in there to kill them while they were sleeping rather then call and wait for militia reinforcements." She said with an attitude, upset at Zherron's impatience.

"Well it worked." Zherron said flatly.

"Yeah, until the roof caved in and all the laigreks above us fell on our heads." Mira snapped back.

"I m just shocked that the repair team I sent out here missed an entire nest of laigreks." Administrator Adare said.

"Well they mentioned they ran out of materials in the sub-levels and you can tell where the walls hadn't been repaired in the area we found them. They were extremely lucky they didn't move further back or there is a high chance they all would have died here. We may have died here, if not for your help." Akkere stated.

"Ah, but the Force was with us today." Mical answered.

"Well I trust that is enough here for one day." Adare said, speaking up. "Let's all get out of here."

We walked outside. The blue Twi'lek but Revan called out her name, "Mission! Come here please. Let me speak with you. Matt why don't you go ahead to the government building. I will catch up."

I went and hopped in the landspeeder with Mira and Atton, and we sped to Khoonda, exchanging conversation.

"So that is Revan?" Atton asked.

"Yep. That is him." I answered.

"He isn't as tall as I would have imagined, Or as arrogant either."

"Arrogance will get you killed." I responded telling him a quote Revan had told me at the start of the Mandalorian Wars.

"Oh. Will that explains that. But why isn't he taller?"

"Atton shut up." Mira said plainly.

He mocked her silently while continuing to drive.

"Who was that young Twi'lek that was with the group?" I asked.

"That was Mission. She is a young Twi'lek that went on Revan to find the star maps. She was barely 14 but the Cathar woman spoke very very highly of her abilities and toughness. Supposedly there is a Wookie that is almost inseparable from her, but is also a chieftain on Kashyyyk and is reorganizing his tribe for war. he is a fierce warrior and was able to kill his brother and multiple Wookie warriors with just a ceremonial vibrosword in order to become the Chief. Scary." Atton explained to me.

"Well if Juhani spoke highly of mission and the Wookie was capable of that, I imagine Revan's companions can handle themselves." I told them. "Why was she being so quiet?"

"She was all in a fuss about him leaving so quickly without telling her bye or something like that." Mira answered.

"Well, here we are." Atton said, slowing the speeder down as we approached the building.

We all arrived around the same time as the others, besides Revan and Mission.

Zherron approached me. "Adare, Tekkare, and I have matters to attend to. I was under the impression that you and many of your friends are leaving for Coruscant?"

"Yes that's right. We must meet with the council and what remains of the order." I told him.

"I understand. Well I wish you all the best of luck. I want you know that you are always welcome here after everything you have done for this settlement." He told me, giving me a firm handshake.

"That means a lot coming from you, truly." I told him as he turned and walked away.

Mical walked with me. "Matthew, am I to stay here?" He asked.

"Absolutely not. You are coming with us to Coruscant?"

"Really?" He asked with childlike excitement climbing into his voice.

"Yes, really. We will need your help." I told him.

About that time, Revan and Mission pulled up, Mission's spirits seemingly lifted after her talk with Revan.

"Well," I spoke up, "The people here are very busy, so it is time for us to leave for Coruscant."

"Are you telling me we have to walk back now?" Atton said, complaining.

"Yes we can't just leave there landspeeders out there. So we brought them back. And I also expected them to ask for some sort of help honestly. Oh well. Lets go."

We all headed back to the Ebon Hawk in casual conversation, anticipating our journey ahead.


End file.
